82 
After the Conquest seals became the component parts of legal 
documents, and it is to the legal importance which attached to 
them, that we owe the preservation of many thousands of impres¬ 
sions, dating from the eleventh to the end of the fifteenth century. 
As land became more and more sub-divided, and wealth generally 
more distributed, the use of seals was diffused among all classes 
legally competent to acquire or aliene property. Not only do we 
find the great or state seals of England, as well as of bodies, both 
ecclesiastical and secular, but innumerable personal seals. The in¬ 
troduction of heraldic insignia at the close of the twelfth century 
had the natural effect of producing a large class of seals exclusively 
armorial in character. At the commencement of the thirteenth 
century the legal necessity for these instruments was thoroughly 
established. 
The impulse given to all branches of the arts soon after the 
accession of Henry III., apparent in all the monuments of that 
reign, is nowhere more conspicuous than in the design and execu¬ 
tion of seals; and these objects continue to present features of con¬ 
siderable beauty from that time until the yea* 1400. Ample 
evidence of this may be seen in the fine collection of casts pre¬ 
sented to the Museum by Mr. W. Osmond, jun. 
After this time personal seals gradually decline in importance, 
as to size, style of design, and execution. Thenceforth many 
represent simply merchant-marks rudely executed, monograms, a 
letter surmounted by a coronet, or the name of the individual. 
CASE N N. 
1. Copy in gutta percha of an impression of the original seal of the 
Abbey of Wilton (see woodcut). It is of circular form, and 
