Signet Matrix: Seal Matrix featuring Two hearts upon an altar, with inscription

This signet matrix is of blue glass, and has a design of two hearts upon an altar, with an inscription at its border. Its design shows that it was probably intended as a marriage or love token.

Seal matrices also known as signet matrices were used to impress their owner’s mark into wax on documents during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Many were made of moulded translucent glass. Little is known of their manufacture. They seem to have been produced for personal rather than commercial use. Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery acquired a collection of twenty-seven seal matrices in 1934. This example is an additional item which is not from this collection.