Sealed with a Stamp

1. Sealed with a Stamp

2. History of the seal • Purpose: • To keep a letter closed • Ensure if hasn’t been tampered with • Confirm it was indeed written by the sender • Time of use: • Old Testament, Middle Ages, but did not really take off until the post-medieval period.

3. Who used them? • At first they were used exclusively by monarchs, bishops, and royal courts for use in issuing official decrees and authenticating documents • Then gradually spreading from aristocrats, to monasteries and guilds • for example, butchers would sign agreements with a seal bearing the image of a hog or cow) • And eventually to ordinary freemen by the 13th century

4. Why the seal? • To keep a letter closed. • Travel, emigration and colonization increased • This was before the British and American postal reforms of the mid-19thcentury • Sending a letter was quite expensive; it cost 25 cents ($6.25 today) in the US to send a letter over 450 miles – quite a sum in those days. • Postage was based on distance and number of sheets. An envelope would have counted as an additional sheet – doubling the cost – so letter writers used as much of a single piece of paper as possible and then sealed it shut with wax or paste to avoid the extra expense. • Envelopes were considered a frivolous luxury.

5. Passing of the seal • Official Seals of the Crown were often handed over with great ceremony, and in Medieval Times the size and motif of the Seal conveyed an image of the status of it’s owner • The signet ring of a dignitary was frequently kissed by a diplomat or visitor as a sign of loyalty or obedience

6. Destroying the seal • Destroy the seal when: • Because seals were symbols of power and were used to authenticate a person’s wishes, they were typically destroyed after the owner died to prevent forgeries. • For example, when a Pope dies or retires “Ring of the Fisherman”

7. Coming to America • The first Seal of the United States was created by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams & Thomas Jefferson on July 4th 1776 • immediately • after the Declaration of Independence was signed. • Congress realized the necessity of such a seal for the newly established nation.

8. Why we stop using Seals? • literacy increased • Postal reforms in the latter half 19th century • reduced the cost of postage and changed their basis from the number of sheets to overall weight • Envelope were now used. They were handmade by stationary clerks, 25 at a time, but the envelopes did not include adhesive, so they still used wax seals • Automatic envelope folding machinesand pre-gummed envelopes were developed

9. Seals became a more personal expression as well as a decorative embellishment.