20/10/2026
PAS Find of the week
A stamp too embarrassing to use for long?
This is a medieval seal matrix: a stamp to be pressed into the molten wax closure on a parchment document. It dates to between 1250 and1350.
A central design features a cog – a medieval ship – rigged, with a crow’s nest lookout on top of the mast. This motif might be used by a shipman or maritime trader.
The cog also appears on English gold coins - the noble issued from 1344 – late on in the period we ascribe this matrix to.
Incised lettering round the edge spells out PIVE SV when reversed, apparently a mistaken attempt at PRIVE SV meaning I am private.
This was a common Latin legend for a seal matrix; just as a modern letter might be marked Confidential.
Though its top loop is broken, the engraved face is crisp and fresh – perhaps a little too crisp – which may suggest its use ended before it wore out.
Commercial confidentiality is nothing new. However, when an owner’s brand was represented by a mis-spelled message, it might give a poor impression… as it were.
This matrix might have been lost when its loop broke. But it may equally have been set aside when the spelling error was recognised – before it had incurred much wear from use.
This would cast an interesting light on medieval literacy. Rather than being the preserve of priests and monks, it was useful to secular workers too…
An engraving mistake was perhaps significant enough to the matrix’s owner, and those he [or she] wrote to, for a flawed stamp to be discarded as soon as the error was recognised.
Found at Hardwick, Lincolnshire
Arts Council England
