TimeLine Auctions Limited
Lot 2724
13th-14th century AD. A bronze vesica-shaped seal matrix with raised and pierced rib to reverse for suspension; the face engraved with incuse nimbate eagle flying right, holding scroll inscribed RIAD'M (for an owner's name?) in its claws with small whorls above and below; with the Latin +ISTI N SVB PEDE PORTAT AVIS inscription for 'The bird carries this name under its foot'; Malcolm Jones, Sheffield University, Dept. English Language & Linguistics, Senior Lecturer 1994-2009 and advisor to the British Museum and Portable Antiquities Scheme, says: 'I'm assuming ISTI is for ISTIC ['there'] and the two letters which follow, one on top of the other, I read as N and M, abbreviations for NOMEN MITTENTIS ['name of the sender']. What was evidently a very similar seal with legend reading NOMEN MITTENTIS SUB PEDE PORTAT AVIS is mentioned in the Nouveau Traite de Diplomatique (1750), but here the name under the bird's feet was DIONISIUS. The name under our eagle's feet is unfortunately far from clear -- perhaps RIADM, conceivably an abbreviated version of some such name as RIchard ADaM (?"). The interest of this particular matrix is that it appears to be an example of a type of generic seal to which the purchaser's name could subsequently somehow be added - which may also explain the difference in clarity and execution between the perimeter lettering and that of the scroll in the eagle's feet.' See Linenthal and Noel, Medieval Seal Matrices in the Schøyen Collection, Oslo, 2004, for discussion. 14.30 grams, 33mm (1 1/4"). Property of a South West London gentleman; acquired by his father in the the Levant in the 1970s; by descent 1986. The nimbate eagle is the symbol of the apostle St John the Divine, son of Zebedee and brother of St James the Greater, author of the Gospel of St John and, traditionally, of the Book of Revelations (Apocalypse) in the New Testament; the inscription on this matrix is unusual. Extremely fine condition.
