 Hello, I'm Elizabeth New, I'm a fellow of the Society of Antiquities. I'm also a teacher at Aberystwyth University, and I'm co-investigator for the Arts and Humanities Research Council project in print, where we're looking at finger and hand prints on the back of wax, making full seals. Today I'm going to be talking about the seal of Robert's son of John, but before I focus on the item itself, just a quick word about what a seal is. A seal can actually be two or three different physical objects. It is a stamp or a die, technically known as a matrix made of a hard material, into which is engraved or cast an image and or text. And these are three medieval examples, one quite flat, as you can see, one with a nice tall handle and the engraving underneath, and probably the most familiar ring, often known as a signet ring. You then use that matrix to impress the image and text into a soft material. In the middle ages it was beeswax mixed with a little bit of tree resin and some colour. You could use this to secure a document or a jar or a box or anything in fact, to show that there'd be no tampering, it hadn't been opened. But in the middle ages attaching a lump of wax to a document and then pushing your matrix into it was a form of validation and authentication in the way that we might sign a document or put our pin into a machine or swipe our credit card. And that impression from the seal matrix in the wax stayed with the document as the principle means of authentication. And seals were used in this way by men and women to authenticate all sorts of exchanges across the British isles in the middle ages. And therefore thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of these impressions survive. The matrices are again probably easy to see, quite easy to lose as well. And a lot of them tend to be found along roadways or in areas where people gather in perhaps where they're having a market or a meeting. And these have been found in their thousands across England and parts of Wales and Scotland and form a very rich insight into people from the middle ages. The item that I'm focusing on is a seal matrix belonging to a man called Robert's son of John. The item itself is quite small, it's made of lead and it's cracked across. It's got a little tab so you'd be able to hold it when you're pushing it into the wax. And also so you know which was the top because of course you can't see what's written or engraved on it. The motif, the central image, is as a radial device, probably stylised leaves and twigs or possibly a stylised flower. This is quite a common type of motif and quite often this type of seal matrix is really rather understudied because although we know the name of the person who owned this, we don't know anything else about him. We don't even know really where it was found. So why is this significant, why have I chosen it? A lot of seals, the matrices or surviving impressions, we know who owned them. They're owned by great lords or kings or institutions like monasteries. And they have images on them that speak to the power and authority of those people or organisations. The kings with an enthroned figure, lords with an equestrian warrior on their seal heraldry claiming their ancestry. And these have been studied quite a lot by a range of scholars interested in the past. So it comes back to this item. We don't know who Robert was but this item tells us that he was probably a man who owned a small amount of land, maybe a bit of property, perhaps engaged in small scale exchange. He wouldn't have used this seal very often because it's too soft a metal to take too many impressions. But he could afford a nice quality engraving and quite a large piece of metal. I don't know how he used it but again it's probably to authenticate a small exchange. He was certainly expressing something about himself. It's identifying him to other people but he would have had a certain amount of choice in this. He might have chosen this design over a stylised lily or a bird or an animal. Even if the image in the centre of being pre-engraved he was still exercising. His personal choice it could have been fashion. He could have liked it. He could have been using this sort of symbol on goods that he was exchanging. He would also have told the person engraving this matrix his name and he's describing himself through his father's name. Again quite a common way of identifying yourself but saying something about how he was represented within his society. We don't know how much he paid for this seal matrix but it would have been additional expenditure. Perhaps something he was proud of. He would have used it in a public context but it would have been a personal item at a time when people had very few personal items. He might have lost it while he was travelling. That seems to have happened quite often and it would have been like arriving home to discover that you've dropped your credit card or lost your driving licence. But this seal has very particular damage down the centre. That again could be accidental but we know that the seals of bishops and some lords and the king were ceremonially cancelled quite often by being cut across when the owner died or when they got a new seal. And I wonder it's done so neatly down the centre whether this could have been a deliberate cancellation. Maybe if Robert the son of John made good on a deal and could afford a bigger, better or more elaborate matrix. This matrix is part of a collection given to the society by Pierre Chaplais who was a fellow of the society and collected seal matrices from the ancient world through to the late 19th century. And it's an important collection because Chaplais collected items such as this, not just the ones of great lords or bishops or very fancy looking matrices of silver, etc. He was keen to have a representative sample. In addition to the Chaplais collection of matrices, the society has a number of other seal matrices again ranging from the ancient world through to the 19th century. And it has a very important, extremely large collection of casts made from both the seal matrices and from impressions attached to documents. This was a very popular way of recording seals before photography. And important because a lot of those seals, especially those attached to documents, have become damaged or lost since the cast was made. The society has around 10,000 and it's one of the largest in Britain and an extremely valuable resource. It's recently started to be recatalogued, photographed and the information about the casts put online and this should be made available for researchers of all kinds.