This looks like a hammer-carrying witch on a broomstick, with the motto: ALL HAVE THEIR HOBBIES. I'm not really getting it?? Just curious.
Lots of new copies out there. Some information on older versions of the saying and imagery here: http://ghlovett3.blogspot.com/p/historical-discovery-of-ameica.html
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malleus_Maleficarum Maybe someone misconstrued it & thought 'Hammer of Witches' meant the witches had the hammers.
Interesting info, thanks! I was at work when I posted the question and hadn't had the time to research it myself. Who would have used such a seal and why? Can you tell if this an "old" seal/intaglio or a repro? Glass or stone?
Glass. The site @Kronos found is really interesting. I think the author comes to some unwarranted conclusions, particularly about witches & the use of brooksticks, but he did a good job finding instances of this image & motto. This one the author describes is probably the same as bluumz's: "The piece below came from an old convent in Glastonbury U.K. The motto reads "ALL HAVE THEIR HOBBIES" And then he shows a seal we can't really see that he says is a little different, from 1824, which is good info for dating. Different in what way, I wonder? Here it is in French, TOUS ONT LEURS MANIES: https://www.addysvintage.co.uk/vict...h-fob-all-have-their-hobbies-chalcedony-seal/ which IMTranslator gives as ALL HAVE THEIR QUIRKS I think this may get closer to what the word "hobby" meant when the intaglio was new, we all have our little ways, we all have our eccentricities. Here it in use in a French newspaper article about male big name tennis players: https://www.liberation.fr/sports/2013/03/20/nadal-n-est-plus-mou-du-genou_890067/ Certains ont des dégaines de voyou : Agassi. Tous ont leurs manies. Tous ont leur rituel avant de rentrer sur le court. Some have the looks of a thug: Agassi. All of them have their quirks. All have their ritual before entering the court. In conjunction with the witch image it seems a humorous sentiment.
When someone starts expounding on a topic s/he returns to regularly & about which s/he has strong opinions, we say so & so is riding their hobbyhorse again. Institutional sexism in action, from Merriam Webster, 1934, definition of hobbyhorse: A stick, often with a horse's head or figure, on which boys pretend to ride.
