446 Proceedings of the Royal frish Academy. 
description especially are of rare occurrence—indeed they are so excep- 
tional in Ireland that this may be considered almost a unique example 
of its class and age. 
The seal, I have already stated, is composed of silver; it weighs an 
ounce and a-half, and its massive silver handle, in my opinion, is the 
handiwork of the artist who made the matrix, and therefore of the 
same age as the matrix itself. Good authorities whom I have con- 
sulted support me at arriving at this conclusion; still there are indi- 
viduals whose views I hold entitled to high respect, who consider the 
setting should be referred to a more recent date than the die portion. 
I am therefore bound to state their view, which is, that it was 
possibly reset about the time of James I., or early in the reign of 
Charles I. I give both these statements, so that each of us may form 
his own judgment from an inspection of the seal. As to the genuine 
character of the engraved part or matrix of the seal and its undoubted 
antiquity there can be no room for the slightest question on that 
point; and for myself, I fail to see what possible object there would be 
in resetting the antiquated matrix of a seal in a solid silver handle 
long after the individual who alone was interested in its employment 
had passed away. It is not the seal of a body corporate or collegiate, 
or the official badge of a bishop or prior of a church; it is altogether 
an article of individual property, though designed, we may with all 
reasonable certainty conclude, for the purpose of being employed by its 
possessor in discharge of the official duties of his position, probably the 
management of ecclesiastical property and the due execution of bonds, 
agreements, and leases. 
The engraved surface of the seal is of oval shape, measuring an 
inch and quarter in length and an inch one-eighth in breadth. It is 
deeply and boldly cut with a graving tool—rather undercut in some 
parts, and therefore unsuited for yielding impressions with the hard 
sealing wax melted by flame such as we now employ. I find it affords 
the most successful results with a soft wax composition similar to that 
which dentists are in the habit of using for their moulds; and when 
this is softened in warm water to a suitable consistence and temperature, 
and the seal itself warmed by dipping it for a short time into hot 
water also, and then dried and impressed with a firm hand, it yields 
favourable and clear impressions. It is obvious that the engraver in 
his design contemplated the reproduction of the semblance of a cathe- 
dral window with its elaborate stone tracery and pillars of Tudor or 
Floriated Gothic Architecture, fillmg up the windows with figures 
similar to those seen in its stained glass panes, and he has carried out 
this elaborate intention with remarkable artistic ability, so that both 
the design itself and the mode of its execution would induce me to 
refer it to the cunning hands of some Flemish artist. In support of 
this idea, I would refer to the great work published in 1873 by 
G. Demay, the Znventaire des Sceaux de la Flandre, which is profusely 
illustrated by photographs of several of the seals described by him, 
belonging to different periods. Amongst them we notice several 
