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Details
LOT 0387
Medieval Silver-Gilt 'Believe Me' Seal Matrix Cap
14TH-15TH CENTURY A.D.
1/2 in. (0.95 grams, 12 mm).
Displaying an embossed bird within a roundel, Latin inscription '+ CREDE : MIChI' ('Believe Me') surrounding; the side edge inscribed 'GRADEMARI[A]'.
Provenance
Acquired from a London gallery in 1990.
Ex property of a North London gentleman.
Literature
Cf. Leahy and Lewis, Finds Identified, BM, 2018, pp.138-139, for similar examples; Hammond, A., Benet's Artefacts, Coggeshall, 2021, pp.703, 729.
Footnotes
A wide range of people would have used a seal, from the monarch to small landowners and tradespeople, anyone with a need for business or legal documents. Individuals had personal seals, but seals were also used by official bodies such as town corporations, trade and religious guilds, cathedrals, abbeys and monasteries, having religious inscriptions like in this one.
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