Welsh Journals

TWO STONE SEAL-DIES FROM THE KNIGHTON AREA By J. M. LEWIS IN April 1967 the National Museum of Wales acquired from Mr. E. P. Brace, Vron Ladies Farm, Llangynllo, Rads., a stone seal-die (Plate lb) found in the course of ploughing on his farm (Nat. Grid SO/215738). It consists of a perforated disc of Silurian siltstone, probably of local origin,1 4.9 cms. in maximum diameter and 1.3 cms. thick. The inscription is set between plain incised borders, and is in Lombardic capitals, reading S' (=sigillum) HOWELI AP WILLMI =The seal of Howel ap William The character of the lettering seems to point to a date about the middle of the 14th century on the following grounds.2 The elongated right leg of the h was common c. 1290-1340, while the prominent serifs point to a date within the 14th century. The w in the form of two superimposed v's was common in the 1260's, but seems to have been revived in the 1340's after the striking of the Great Seal of Edward III. The strange form of the a is clearly an approximation to the parallel-sided, flat-topped form. This form, with the lengthened left leg, suggests a 14th century date Kingsford publishes a close parallel from the fifth Great Seal of Edward III (1360). The m looks like a Roman h, but this cannot have been the intention, as "Willmi" is one of the most common forms of abbreviation on seals'3, while the Roman h seems to have gone out of use early in the 13th century, only to reappear in the 16th. Moreover, a form of m with the cross-bar springing from below the tops of the uprights does occur, and there is a tendency for the cross-bar to be subordinated and become straightened. This form seems to start with the Great Seal of Edward I (1272) and is found until the 1340's. The compressed w in "Howel" and the horizontal i at the end of "Willmi" (apparently a device to fill the space at the end of the inscription) must be regarded as provincial oddities. The die closely resembles a spindle-whorl, but this resemblance is probably fortuitous the inscription is well preserved, so that its re-use as a spindle-whorl is unlikely, while it is hardly likely that a discarded spindle-whorl would have been used for a die on which an inscription of such good quality was to be cut. The perforation therefore relates to its use as a seal, and might either have been used for hanging it up, or for the insertion of the end of a wooden handle. I have been unable to find any British parallels to this perforated form of die. Welsh seals attached to bonds of the late 13th century in the Public Record Office4 include circular forms, but these appear to have been produced by dies of the conventional type. There is, however, a mid-13th century seal from Normandy with a prominent central boss, which might have been produced by a perforated die.5 Stone is an uncommon material for dies, and, as might be expected, it was used only by the less wealthy. Of the personal seal-dies of the 12th- 16th centuries listed in the British Museum Catalogue,6 those without arms comprise 119, divided as follows :­