A FINE MID-19TH CENTURY MALACHITE, BLOODSTONE AND AGATE MULTI-MATRIX DESK SEAL
£3,780
Auction: 17 October 2023 from 10:00 BST
Description
Modelled as an armoured arm, the scroll engraved gauntlet holding a scroll, the oval bloodstone terminal engraved with the arms of Salomon and Cohen, the scroll set to each terminal, with initials and crest to each
Dimensions
Length: 8.5cm, matrix: 1.6cm x 1.3cm, smaller matrix diameter: 8mm
Provenance
Literature :
Matrix: A Collection of British Seals - David Morris 2012- Seal 45, page 102
Footnote
Note:
Sir David Salomons, MP for Greenwich and an Alderman of the City of London was born in 1797 and married firstly, in 1825, Jeanette, daughter of Solomon Cohen, but after her death in 1867, married secondly Cecilia, the widow of his second son J.P. Salomons.
David Salomons had a distinguished career in the City of London, and at thirty-five was one of the founders of the London and Westminster Bank. In 1835 he was the first Jew to be elected Sheriff and at the end of that year was presented with a massive silver ornament by fellow Jews as ‘an acknowledgement of his exertions in the cause of religious liberty’. When he became the first Jewish Lord Mayor of London in 1855, the question arose as to whether he could be bound by an oath not taken on the Bible. This same difficulty has already arisen four years prior when he was returned as Member of Parliament for Greenwich but could not take his seat in the House of Commons because of the Parliamentary oath – this was resolved by the influence of the Rothschild family.
He remained a Liberal MP for Greenwich until his death in 1873 when his title and estate at Broomhill in Kent passed to his nephew Sir David Lionel Salomons.
The arms are those of Salomons, Baronets, impaling Cohen, within a lozenge. They are impaled within a lozenge (for a female) and unusually, also bear the Baronet's badge. Sadly the arms on this seal were never registered in this form. However, they relate most closely to the period of Sir David Salomons first marriage but the addition of the Baronet’s badge is incorrect (him not receiving this honour when his first wife was alive), however it has been suggested this was added later and therefore the seal relates to the period of his life prior to 1867 but used later.