Writers on diplomatics mention, besides metals, five other substances
on which impressions were made, or with which letters and public acts
were sealed, viz. _terra sigillaris_, cement, paste, common wax, and
sealing-wax[344]. The _terra sigillaris_ was used by the Egyptians, and
appears to have been the first substance employed for sealing[345]. The
Egyptian priests bound to the horns of the cattle fit for sacrifice a
piece of paper; stuck upon it some sealing-earth, on which they made an
impression with their seal; and such cattle only could be offered up as
victims[346].
Lucian speaks of a fortune-teller who ordered those who came to consult
him to write down on a bit of paper the questions they wished to ask,
to fold it up, and to seal it with clay, or any other substance of the
like kind[347]. Such earth seems to have been employed in sealing by
the Byzantine emperors: for we are told that at the second council of
Nice, a certain person defended the worship of images by saying, no one
believed that those who received written orders from the emperor and
venerated the seal, worshiped on that account the sealing-earth, the
paper, or the lead[348].
Cicero relates that Verres having seen in the hands of one of his
servants a letter written to him from Agrigentum, and having observed
on it an impression in sealing-earth (_cretula_), he was so pleased
with it that he caused the seal-ring with which it was made to be taken
from the possessor[349]. The same orator, in his defence of Flaccus,
produced an attestation sent from Asia, and proved its authenticity
by its being sealed with Asiatic sealing-earth; with which, said he
to the auditors, as you daily see, all public and private letters in
Asia are sealed: and he showed on the other hand that the testimony
brought by the accuser was false, because it was sealed with wax, and
for that reason could not have come from Asia[350]. The scholiast
Servius relates, that a sibyl received a promise from Apollo, that she
should live as long as she did not see the earth of the island Erythræa
where she resided; that she therefore quitted the place, and retired
to Cumæ, where she became old and decrepid; but that having received a
letter sealed with Erythræan earth (_creta_), when she saw the seal she
instantly expired[351].
No one however will suppose that this earth was the same as that to
which we at present give the name of _creta_, chalk; for if it was a
natural earth it must have been of that kind called potters’ clay, as
that clay is capable of receiving an impression and of retaining it
after it is hardened by drying. That the Romans, under the indefinite
name of _creta_, often understood a kind of potters’ earth, can be
proved by many passages of their writers. Columella speaks of a kind
of chalk of which wine-jars and dishes were made[352]. Virgil calls
it tough[353]; and the ancient writers on agriculture give the same
name to marl which was employed to manure land[354]. Notwithstanding
all these authorities, I do not clearly comprehend how letters could
be sealed with potters’ clay, as it does not adhere with sufficient
force either to linen, of which in ancient times the covers of letters
were made, or to parchment; as it must be laid on very thick to have
a distinct impression; as it is long in drying, and is again easily
softened by moisture; and, at any rate, if conveyed by post at present,
it would be crumbled into dust in going only from Hamburg to Altona.
I can readily believe that the Roman messengers employed more skill
and attention to preserve the letters committed to their care than are
employed by our postmen; but the distance from Asia to Rome is much
greater than that from Hamburg to Altona.
But may there not be as little foundation for the ancient expression
_creta Asiatica_, Asiatic earth, as for the modern expression, _cera
Hispanica_, Spanish wax? May not the former have signified a kind of
coarse artificial cement? These questions might be answered by those
who have had an opportunity of examining or only seeing the _sigilla
cretacea_ in collections of antiquities. We are assured that such are
still preserved; at least we find in Ficoroni[355] the representation
of six impressions which, as he tells us, consisted of that earth.
In that author however I find nothing to clear up my doubts; he says
only that some of these seals were white; others of a gray colour,
like ashes; others red, and others brown. They seem all to have been
enclosed in leaden cases. Could it be proved that each letter was
wrapped round with a thread, and that the thread, as in the seals
affixed to diplomas, was drawn through the covering of the seal,
the difficulty which I think occurs in the use of these earths, as
mentioned by the ancients, would entirely disappear[356]. It seems to
me remarkable that neither Theophrastus nor Pliny says anything of the
Asiatic _creta_, or speaks at all of sealing-earth; though they have
carefully enumerated all those kinds of earth which were worth notice
on account of any use.
In Europe, as far as I know, wax has been everywhere used for sealing
since the earliest ages. Writers on diplomatics, however, are not
agreed whether yellow or white wax was first employed; but it appears
that the former, on account of its low price, must have been first and
principally used, at least by private persons. It is probable also,
that the seals of diplomas were more durable when they consisted of
yellow wax; for it is certain that white wax is rendered more brittle
and much less durable by the process of bleaching. Many seals also may
at present be considered white which were at first yellow; for not
only does wax highly bleached resume in time a dirty yellow colour,
but yellow wax also in the course of years loses so much of its colour
as to become almost like white wax. This perhaps may account for the
oldest seals appearing to be of white, and the more modern of yellow
wax. These however are conjectures which I submit with deference to the
determination of those versed in diplomatics.
In the course of time wax was coloured red; and a good deal later,
at least in Germany, but not before the fourteenth century, it was
coloured green, and sometimes black. I find it remarked that blue wax
never appears on diplomas; and I may indeed say it is impossible it
should appear, for the art of giving a blue colour to wax has never
yet been discovered; and in old books, such as that of Wecker, we
find no receipt for that purpose. Later authors have pretended to
give directions how to communicate that colour to wax, but they are
altogether false; for vegetable dyes when united with wax become
greenish, so that the wax almost resembles the hip-stone; and earthy
colours do not combine with it, but in melting fall again to the
bottom. A seal of blue wax, not coloured blue merely on the outer
surface, would be as great a rarity in the arts as in diplomatics, and
would afford matter of speculation for our chemists; but I can give
them no hopes that such a thing can ever be produced[357]. The emperor
Charles V. in the year 1524 granted to Dr. Stockamar of Nuremberg, the
privilege of using blue wax in seals;--a favour like that conferred in
1704 on the manufactories in the principality of Halberstadt and the
county of Reinstein, to make indigo from minerals. It was certainly
as difficult for the doctor to find blue wax for seals as for the
proprietors of these manufactories to discover indigo in the earth[358].
Much later are impressions made on paste or dough, which perhaps
could not be employed on the ancient parchment or the linen covers
of letters, though in Pliny’s time the paper then in use was joined
together with flour paste[359]. Proper diplomas were never sealed with
wafers; and in the matchless diplomatic collection of H. Gatterer
there are no wafer-seals much above two hundred years old. From that
collection I have now in my possession one of these seals, around the
impression of which is the following inscription, _Secretum civium in
Ulma, 1474_; but it is only a new copy of a very old impression. Kings,
however, before the invention of sealing-wax, were accustomed to seal
their letters with this paste[360].
Heineccius and others relate that _maltha_ also was employed for
seals. This word signifies a kind of cement, formed chiefly of
inflammable substances, and used to make reservoirs, pipes, &c.
water-tight. Directions how to prepare it may be found in the writers
on agriculture, Pliny, Festus and others. The latter tells how to make
it of a composition of pitch and wax[361]: but neither in that author
nor in any other have I found proofs that letters were sealed with it,
or that seals of it were affixed to diplomas: for the words of Pollux,
“cera qua tabella judicum obliniebatur[362],” will admit of a different
explanation. If maltha has been in reality used for seals, that mixture
may be considered as the first or oldest sealing-wax, as what of it is
still preserved has been composed of resinous substances.
Some writers assert[363], upon the authority of Lebeuf[364], that
sealing-wax was invented about the year 1640 by a Frenchman named
Rousseau; but that author refers his readers to Papillon[365], who
refers again to Pomet[366], so that the last appears to be the first
person who broached that opinion. According to his account, Francis
Rousseau, born not far from Auxerre, and who travelled a long time in
Persia, Pegu and other parts of the East Indies, and in 1692 resided in
St. Domingo, was the inventor of sealing-wax. Having, while he lived
at Paris as a merchant, during the latter years of the reign of Louis
XIII., who died in 1643, lost all his property by a fire, he bethought
himself of preparing sealing-wax from shell-lac, as he had seen it
prepared in India, in order to maintain his wife and five children.
A lady of the name of Longueville made this wax known at court, and
caused Louis XIII. to use it, after which it was purchased and used
throughout all Paris. By this article, Rousseau, before the expiration
of a year, gained 50,000 livres. It acquired the name of _cire
d’Espagne_, Spanish wax, because at that time a kind of lac, which was
only once melted and coloured a little red, was called Portugal wax,
_cire de Portugal_[367].
That sealing-wax was either very little or not at all known in Germany
in the beginning of the sixteenth century, may be concluded from its
not being mentioned either by Porta or Wecker; though in the works of
both these authors there are various receipts respecting common wax,
and little known methods of writing and sealing[368]. The former says,
that to open letters in such a manner as not to be perceived, the wax
seal must be heated a little, and must be then carefully separated
from the letter by a horse’s hair; and when the letter has been read
and folded up, the seal must be again dexterously fastened to it. This
manœuvre, as the writers on diplomatics remark, has been often made
use of to forge public acts; and they have therefore given directions
how to discover such frauds[369]. The above method of opening letters,
however, can be applied only to common wax, and not to sealing-wax:
had the latter been used in Wecker’s time he would have mentioned this
limitation[370].
Whether sealing-wax was used earlier in the East Indies than in Europe,
as the French think, I cannot with certainty determine. Tavernier[371],
however, seems to say that the lac produced in the kingdom of Assam
is employed there not only for lackering, but also for making Spanish
sealing-wax. I must confess also that I do not know whether the Turks
and other eastern nations use it in general. In the collection of
natural curiosities belonging to our university there are two sticks
of sealing-wax which Professor Butner procured from Constantinople,
under the name of Turkish wax. They are angular, bent like a bow, are
neither stamped nor glazed, and are of a dark but pure red colour. Two
other sticks which came from the East Indies are straight, glazed,
made somewhat thin at both ends, have no stamp, and are of a darker
and dirtier red colour. All these four sticks seem to be lighter than
ours, and I perceive that by rubbing they do not acquire so soon nor so
strong an electrical quality as our German wax of moderate fineness.
But whether the first were made in Turkey and the latter in the East
Indies, or whether the whole four were made in Europe, is not known.
That sealing-wax however was made and used in Germany a hundred years
before Rousseau’s time, and that the merit of that Frenchman consisted
probably only in this, that he first made it in France, or made the
first good wax, will appear in the course of what follows.
The oldest known seal of our common sealing-wax is that found by
M. Roos, on a letter written from London, Aug. 3rd, 1554, to the
rheingrave Philip Francis von Daun, by his agent in England, Gerrard
Hermann[372]. The colour of the wax is a dark-red; it is very shining,
and the impression bears the initials of the writer’s name G. H. The
next seal, in the order of time, is one of the year 1561, on a letter
written to the council of Gorlitz at Breslau. This letter was found
among the ancient records of Gorlitz by Dr. Anton, and is three
times sealed with beautiful red wax[373]. Among the archives of the
before-mentioned family M. Roos found two other letters of the year
1566, both addressed to the rheingrave Frederick von Daun, from Orchamp
in Picardy, by his steward Charles de Pousol; the one dated September
the 2nd, and the other September the 7th. Another letter, written by
the same person to the same rheingrave, but dated Paris January 22nd,
1567, is likewise sealed with red wax, which is of a higher colour, and
appears to be of a coarser quality. As the oldest seals of this kind
came from France and England, M. Roos conjectures that the invention,
as the name seems to indicate, belongs to the Spaniards. This
conjecture appears to me however improbable, especially as sealing-wax
was used at Breslau so early as 1561; but this matter can be best
determined perhaps by the Spanish literati. It is much to be lamented
that John Fenn, in his Original letters of the last half of the
fifteenth century[374], when he gives an account of the size and shape
of the seals, does not inform us of what substances they are composed.
Respecting a letter of the year 1455, he says only, “The seal is of red
wax;” by which is to be understood, undoubtedly, common wax.
Among the records of the landgraviate of Cassel, M. Ledderhose found
two letters of Count Louis of Nassau to the landgrave William IV.,
one of which, dated March the 3rd, 1563, is sealed with red wax, and
the other, dated November 7th, the same year, is sealed with black
wax[375]. M. Neuberger, private keeper of the archives at Weimar,
found among the records of that duchy a letter sealed with red wax,
and written at Paris, May the 15th, 1571, by a French nobleman named
Vulcob, who the year before had been ambassador from the king of France
to the court of Weimar. It is worthy of remark, that the same person
had sealed nine letters of a prior date with common wax, and that
the tenth is sealed with Spanish wax. P. L. Spiess, principal keeper
of the records at Plessenburg, who gave rise to this research by his
queries, saw a letter of the year 1574 sealed with red sealing-wax,
and another of the year 1620 sealed with black sealing-wax. He found
also in an old expense-book of 1616, that Spanish wax, expressly,
and other materials for writing were ordered from a manufacturer of
sealing-wax at Nuremberg, for the personal use of Christian margrave of
Brandenburg[376].
The oldest mention of sealing-wax which I have hitherto observed in
printed books is in the work of Garcia ab Orto[377], where the author
remarks, speaking of lac, that those sticks used for sealing letters
were made of it. This book was first printed in 1563, about which
time it appears that the use of sealing-wax was very common among the
Portuguese.
The oldest printed receipt for making sealing-wax was found by Von
Murr, in a work by Samuel Zimmerman, citizen of Augsburg, printed in
1579[378]. The copy which I have from the library of our university is
signed at the end by the author himself. His receipts for making red
and green sealing-wax I shall here transcribe.
“To make hard sealing-wax, called Spanish wax, with which if letters be
sealed they cannot be opened without breaking the seal:--Take beautiful
clear resin, the whitest you can procure, and melt it over a slow coal
fire. When it is properly melted, take it from the fire, and for every
pound of resin add two ounces of vermilion pounded very fine, stirring
it about. Then let the whole cool, or pour it into cold water. Thus
you will have beautiful red sealing-wax.
“If you are desirous of having black wax, add lamp-black to it. With
smalt or azure you may make it blue; with white-lead white, and with
orpiment yellow.
“If instead of resin you melt purified turpentine in a glass vessel,
and give it any colour you choose, you will have a harder kind of
sealing-wax, and not so brittle as the former.”
What appears to me worthy of remark in these receipts for sealing-wax
is, that there is no mention in them of shell-lac, which at present is
the principal ingredient, at least in that of the best quality; and
that Zimmerman’s sealing-wax approaches very near to that which in
diplomatics is called _maltha_. One may also conclude therefore that
this invention was not brought from the East Indies.
The expression Spanish wax is of little more import than the words
Spanish-green, Spanish-flies, Spanish-grass, Spanish-reed, and several
others, as it was formerly customary to give to all new things,
particularly those which excited wonder, the appellation of Spanish;
and in the like manner many foreign or new articles have been called
Turkish; such as Turkish wheat, Turkish paper, &c.
Respecting the antiquity of wafers, M. Spiess has made an
observation[379] which may lead to further researches, that the oldest
seal with a red wafer he has ever yet found, is on a letter written by
D. Krapf at Spires in the year 1624, to the government at Bayreuth.
M. Spiess has found also that some years after, Forstenhäusser, the
Brandenburg factor at Nuremberg, sent such wafers to a bailiff at
Osternohe. It appears however that wafers were not used during the
whole of the seventeenth century in the chancery of Brandenburg, but
only by private persons, and by these even seldom; because, as Spiess
says, people were fonder of Spanish wax. The first wafers with which
the chancery of Bayreuth began to make seals were, according to an
expense account of the year 1705, sent from Nuremberg. The use of wax
however was still continued; and among the Plassenburg archives there
is a rescript of 1722, sealed with proper wax. The use of wax must have
been continued longer in the duchy of Weimar; for in the Electa Juris
Publici there is an order of the year 1716, by which the introduction
of wafers in law matters is forbidden, and the use of wax commanded.
This order however was abolished by duke Ernest Augustus in 1742, and
wafers again introduced.