seals

a mark or image, often including a portrait or coat of arms, applied to documents by stamping a seal tool, or ‘die’, often into wax. Applying a seal in this way could act as a type of signature, showing who had made or agreed to the sealed record; the seal could also fulfil the physical task of closing shut a document until it was opened by the recipient. Seals could be applied on the document, or hanging from the document on a strip of paper or parchment, or on a card. See also signet letters, the Great Seal and Privy Seal.