Queen Anne Wax Privy Seal Matrix Great Britain Royal Coat of Arms Acts of Union

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Queen Anne Wax Privy Seal Matrix Great Britain Royal Coat of Arms Acts of Union:
$13750.00

For your consideration is an original early eighteenth-century steel wax seal matrix bearing the post-1707 Royal Arms of Queen Anne (r. 17021714), executed in sharply engraved intaglio and attributable to the period following the Acts of Union of 1707. The engraved achievement presents the royal shield quarterly, combining England and France, Scotland, and Ireland in the officially adopted form used after the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain. The shield is encircled by the Garter with the motto HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE, surmounted by the royal crown, and supported by the crowned lion of England at dexter and the unicorn of Scotland at sinister. Beneath, the scroll bears the royal motto DIEU ET MON DROIT. The heraldic arrangement is fully consistent with the armorial achievement employed by Queen Anne after Union, when the sovereign style and visual language of monarchy were reconfigured to reflect the new British state.

The matrix is executed in steel, a material associated with strength, permanence, and repeated practical use, rather than with ephemeral display. Its dimensionsapproximately 40 x 35 mm at the engraved face, with a thickness of 8 mm and metal spoke of 22 mmtogether with its substantial weight of 87.87 grams, indicate an implement intended for regular official sealing rather than a purely personal trinket or ornamental desk object. The engraving is crisp and purposeful, designed to produce a clear wax impression capable of transmitting the full royal achievement with legibility and authority. Such matrices served as instruments of authentication, transforming the abstract authority of the Crown into a physical and juridically operative mark upon wax- documents.

Historically, the piece belongs to one of the most consequential moments in British constitutional development. Queen Annes reign saw the union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland under the Acts of Union in 1707, establishing the Kingdom of Great Britain. The arms engraved upon this matrix are therefore not merely decorative heraldry, but a formal expression of the new political settlement. Their inclusion of England quartered with France, Scotland, and Ireland preserves both the inherited dynastic claims of the English Crown and the newly consolidated British identity. As such, the matrix stands as a material witness to the administrative and symbolic mechanisms through which the post-Union monarchy represented itself in the early eighteenth century.

Of further interest is the presence of the scratched initials KI on the verso of the matrix, an apparent later ownership or control mark that contributes to the objects evidentiary character as a working instrument rather than a purely ceremonial survival. Royal and governmental seal matrices of this class are uncommon survivals, as obsolete official dies were often retired, secured, altered, or destroyed to prevent unauthorized use once superseded. The present example, preserving a complete and legible post-1707 achievement of Queen Anne in steel, constitutes a rare survival of British royal administrative material culture. It should be understood not simply as a heraldic artifact, but as a functional implement of sovereign authority from the formative years of Great Britain.