ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY - A FINE MID EIGHTEEN CENTURY SILVER SEAL
ENGLISH, CIRCA 1757, UNMARKED
Estimate: £1,200 - £1,500
Auction: Silver & Objets de Vertu | Wednesday 4th March at 10am
Description
The navette shaped matrix with deeply cut armorial shield with bishops mitre above and motto ‘THE SEAL OF MATTHEW HUTTON ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY 1757’ within foliate border, in a red Morocco leather and gilt tooled case with gilt bishops mitre to cover, the plush lined interior with a contemporary red wax impression of the seal
Dimensions
9.8cm long, 4mm high, 120g
Provenance
Matrix a Collection of British Seals, David Morris, seal 81, pages 162 – 163
Footnote
Heraldry
The arms of the See of Canterbury impaling Hutton for Matthew Hutton Archbishop of Canterbury (1693 – 1758)
Note
Matthew Hutton was born in Yorkshire and was educated and Rippon and latterly Jesus College Cambridge. He would serve as Chaplin to King George II and accompanied him on a visit to Hanover in1737. He would be appointed Cannon of Windsor which he exchange two year later for the post at Westminster.
He was consecrated Bishop of Bangor in 1743. Archbishop of York 1747 and finally Archbishop of Canterbury in 1757. Hutton was hesitant to take the post of Archbishop of Canterbury due to financial concerns. He found his official residence, Lambeth Palace, in such a state of disrepair he refused to move in and stayed in his own home on Duke Street, Westminster.
Correspondence between David Morris and Dr Palmer (Librarian and archivist at Lambeth Place) notes that there are no Archbishops seals within the Palace collection prior to the mid nineteenth century. The official seals were meant to be retuned and recycled into future seals meaning that any surviving example, such as this, is extremely rare.