Identifying wax seals and sealed documents

Pendant seals, papered wafers, and the impressions of authority.

Wax seals survive attached to documents (pendant on cords or parchment tags for solemn deeds; applied directly for letters) and occasionally loose. Medieval wax runs natural to red and green; great seals show enthroned rulers or equestrian figures, personal seals show devices matching signet rings, and ecclesiastical seals favour pointed-oval (vesica) shapes.

Later letters use shellac wax with crisp small impressions, then embossed paper wafers and stamped company seals. The impression is a mirror-image record of a matrix — photograph it well and it can be matched to known matrices or heraldry.

Wax is fragile: support it fully, never flex the tag, and keep it cool. Record shape, colour, size, legend text, and device; note the document's date if attached, since the seal and the text confirm each other.

From the guide library inside Collectors Catalogues, a free app for cataloguing antiques and finds with honest, museum-grade records.

More on religious objects

Seals and seal matrices — Reading a reversed device.

Identifying pilgrim badges and ampullae — Lead-tin devotional souvenirs.

Identifying scarabs and amulets — Egyptian protective forms.

Identifying cuneiform tablets — Wedge-marks in clay.

Identifying reliquaries and devotional objects — Containers for the sacred — from enkolpia to house shrines.

Identifying ushabti figures — The mummiform servants of Egyptian burials — and their million imitations.

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