£1,764
A Private Collection of Seals: Highlights from The Matrix Collection | 749
Auction: 19 May 2023 at 11:00 BST
the facetted citrine handle to a gilt metal collar with embossed floral decoration, the rounded rectangular citrine matrix engraved with the arms of clan Kirkpatrick
Heraldry:
Arms: Argent on a saltire charged with (……?) and chief azure the last charged with three cushions ermine
Crest: A hand couped at the wrist holding a dagger in pale distilling drops of blood proper
Motto: I mak sicker [I make sure]
Note:
Upon the balance of probability, and without any evidence to the contrary, this seal was at one time in the possession of a gentleman of the Kirkpatrick family. Although it is presently difficult to pinpoint which branch of the family the gentleman belonged, as there are slight variants to charges found in the arms as blazoned above that differ them from chiefly or stem from the family of Kirkpatrick of Closeburn in the County of Dumfriesshire, the following hypothesis might be a credible one. As these armorial bearings do not appear to have been recorded in the Registers of Lyon Court in Edinburgh, an examination of the Books of Ulster King of Arms was undertaken and it was found that similar armorial bearings were confirmed by then Ulster King of Arms, Sir Neville Wilkinson on 20th February 1925 at Dublin Castle. The gentleman who was confirmed in these armorial bearings was the grandson of William Kirkpatrick of Donacomper in the County of Kildare, who was living probably during the early to mid-19th Century. The text of the confirmation from the Ulster King of Arms stated the family descended from a younger branch of the Kirkpatricks of Closeburn aforesaid and that the family had long used these armorial bearings but as they found not to be recorded with the Ulster King of Arms they thought it best that they should be so recorded. So, there is, therefore, a presumption that owing to the closeness of the design of both arms and crest (save for the use of the ‘crown’ on the saltire) as engraved upon the matrix and the confirmed armorial bearings that this seal was at one time in the possession of the family of Kirkpatrick of Donacomper.
The clan takes its name from the church of Saint Patrick in Dumfries and Galloway