Featured Reproductions of Medieval seals

I have a bit of a hard time to find a descent category for this on the forum, so that is why I post it in the general thread.

Today a box was delivered with a find I did on the internet. I am not so much interested in the monetary value, but more in the historical value of this find.

The box contains 50 reproduced medieval seals, all from the Strasbourg region in France. In the lid of the box and as a loose paper there is a short description of every seal. The casts are made of some kind of resin.






On the back of the seals is sometimes a name and/or a year.



In the box there also was a letter from 1963 of a man called Charles Haudot to a Mss. Rumeau, adjuct director of the national archives (probably in Paris). The exact content is for me very hard to read, because I don't speak much French. Maybe someone can help me with that.





Charles Haudot (1919-2010) was a famous sigillograph (seal expert) from Strasbourg. He worked in the regional archive in Strasbourg and later he founded his own museum in the village La Petit Pierre about seals where he was conservator.



Museum about seals



Short film of Charles Haudot making seals like this (French language).

Making the seals




Later today I contacted the seller of the box. She bought it years ago in Paris in an antiqueshop.

I love it when I can find so much information about objects!

 

Indeed! For starters, I never heard that term before. And if anyone invited me to go see the seals, I'd (naturally) assume we were going to the zoo. And that Einstein quote is one of my favorites.

 

If I translate texts about these seals from French into Dutch it translate like this:

Sceau->seal (in English) -> zeehond =.

funny is that rob is a synonym for seal in Dutch, which is my first name.

 

Here is my traduction of the letter:

Madam,
allow me to express to you all my gratitude for granting me these few moments of interview during my last stay in Paris.
I allow myself to offer you about fifty casts of these seals of Alsace, which I have identified, mounted, photographed and filed in 3 copies.I have just finished the first draft of a directory booklet comprising a thousand hollows (?) of seals.Work that I carried out absolutely alone in two years, and naturally in addition to my activity as a photographer.

May the new year bring you the best and please accept my most respectful regards.

Charles HAUDOT
head of the photo laboratory at the Bas Rhin prefecture in the departmental archives service.

That man was a true expert and searcher! What a great work he did, documenting all these medieval historical pieces

 

What a wonderful find, and quite possibly very useful resource! I know some SCA and Renaissance Faire people would probably lose their minds over this!

 

Thank you for your translation! To be 100% complete is here the envelope that came with the letter.

 

Impressions?

 

I do not know if this forum is the right place to post. The casts are not even antique, but just reproductions of ancient objects. A box like this is rare though. As the letter mentioned there were 3 made (at that time). I wonder where the other 2 are. I can imagine there is still a box in the museum in La Petite Pierre (Little Rock in English). I can't imagine there are a lot collectors for these reproductions. The history of this small collection is mainly interesting to the local history I guess.


These casts were made for exibition- and research purposes. The original wax seals are very vulnarable. Maybe next summer I will plan my holiday in the Alsace for further investigation. Then I can combine my interest for this box with my passion for old books. One of my oldest books (1514) is printed in the nearby town of Haguenau. I wonder if there is still any history left there.

 

there were certainly more made than 3.
https://tourisme.hanau-lapetitepier...es-idees-de-visites/musee-du-sceau-alsacien/#

la Petite-Pierre is a direct translation from the old German Lützelstein (lützel is etymologically related to little...).
nice region.

 

I don't know where I can read there were more than 3 of these boxes made, even after 1963. I am sure Haudot made thousands of reproductions of seals during his life, mainly for his museum and probably for other institutions.

 

problem a.o. is that he was obviously following the orders of Paris that forbade the use of the German language after 1945, especially in Alsace-Lorraine and by civil servants; and even schoolchildren were mistreated by "real" French (français de l'intérieur) teachers when they spoke dialect during recess. so it's questionable if he ever spoke Alsatian or German himself.
these collector boxes - or Sammelkästen - were well known during the Historismus era or in England the Victorian era.
then there's the second problem - the German occupation. these boxes were easily sent home to one's children because the inside descriptions were certainly in German.

 

I really do not agree to your interpretation here. I haven't read anything about Haudot anti French sentiment. If I read his biography a hate agains German seen more likely because he was a soldier and POW in WWII. That is the only lead I have got.

I know the Sammelkasten, but these 50 casts were all handmade and -painted. Even the box and description are hand written. This seems far too costly as a child tool. When this box was made (before 1963) Haudot still was "head of the photo laboratory at the Bas Rhin prefecture in the departmental archives service" and made these seal in his spare time. Only 8 years later (in 1971) he started the museum. I find it very unlikely these boxes were made for children.

 

According wikipedia the museum even opened in 1979.


https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musée_du_sceau_alsacien_de_La_Petite-Pierre

 

Hello,

It looks like you have a very nice collection of seal casts. I collect old documents, mostly English, and quite a few still retain their original seals--the oldest one with a seal dating from between 1274 and 1281. Casts like the ones that you have are historically important because of the fragility of the originals. I have read that in some cases, casts made from original seals are all that remains since the originals have been lost or broken since the casts were made. In other cases, illustrations are all that remain. I wonder what material was used for making the casts? Is there

Regards,

Jim Poynor

PS: I tried to find the 1971 video but no luck.

 

The stamps are made of some kind of resin and then painted I think. I have a few seals (made of wax and 1 of lead) in my collection, but none as old as yours.

The lead seal or papal bulla (1640)