Armorial Silver seal matrice

Code: 11167

This is a Stuart period silver armorial seal, dating to the 17th century. It is deeply cut with a set of arms that I read as 'Lion rampant on a chief or'. The difficulty in establishing the likely owner of this seal comes with determining the colours of the arms. The small dots on the chief should, by convention, indicate the colour gold ('or') with the featureless field indicating silver ('argent') but there cannot be gold against a white background. It is also unclear whether tincture of the lion being also a gold or black or red etc. As such I have not proceeded any further with the attribution and will leave for those more knowledgeable than me! However, the body of the seal has an openwork trefoil handle, this is similar to one recorded from Peckleton (LEIC-8AEB09) and West Dorset (SOM-3A56C1) which combined gives us a firm 17th-century date. 

OBJECT: Armorial Fob Seal

CULTURE: Stuart

DATE: c. 1600 - 1700 A.D.

MATERIAL: Silver

SIZE: 21.83mm x 15.20mm x 12.44mm 

WEIGHT:  4.63 grams

PROVENANCE: Formerly the property of a lady, from the collection of Simon Bendall (Byzantine Numismatist, 1937-2019).