THE SIR JONATHAN WATHEN WALLER SILVER GILT ENGLISH DESK SEAL C1820 OF GEORGE IV

Seal Detail - as featured on p46 of our "Matrix" book

The seal is cast as a bust of George IV with forward-swept locks, wearing uniform elaborately ornamented with gold lace, a laurel wreath on the collar, with the Sash and Star of the Order of the Garter and the chain of the Golden Fleece. The bust is on a bracketed support with angular bosses on a textured ground. The hexagonal white chalcedony matrix was later engraved with a crest, a coat of arms and a motto. In a later fitted rectangular black leather case, circa 1845, with tooled border and green plush lining, and stamped for the retailer: Noah Groves/ Goldsmith/ Bradford (Note: split in the upper portion due to damage which requires fixing.)

The motto reads hic fructus virtutis (‘This is the fruit of valour’). The arms are those of Waller as the Waller Baronetcy of Braywick Lodge, Berkshire. 

The seal is believed to have been given to Sir Jonathan Wathen Waller (1769–1853), 1st Baronet, ophthalmic surgeon to George III and his family, later Groom of the Bedchamber to William IV.

The Waller family are said to owe descent to Alured de Waller of Newark. Anne Waller, sole surviving heir of Thomas Waller of south Lambeth, married firstly John Allen, by whom she had an only child, Mary. Anne Allen married secondly Jonathan Wathen, an eye surgeon. Mary Allen married Joshua Phipps, an ironfounder in the East End of London, and left one son, Jonathan Wathen Phipps, who, as sole heir to his grandmother, assumed her arms and name in 1814 by sign-manual, being also created Baronet in December of that year. Sir Jonathan had followed his step-grandfather’s example, becoming an eye specialist with a particular reputation for cataracts. Ironically, he himself was to become blind as a result of two failed cataract operations before his death in 1853. 

Jonathan Wathen Phipps married firstly Elizabeth Slack in 1793 and had seven children, four of whom survived infancy. His two sons, Thomas, who succeeded as 2nd Baronet in 1853, and Ernest Adolphus, who entered holy orders, married two sisters in 1836 and 1835 respectively. Following Elizabeth’s death in 1809, Jonathan married secondly in 1812, as her second husband, Sophia Charlotte (1762–1835), daughter of Earl Howe, from whom she inherited the title of Baroness Howe of Langar. They lived at Twickenham on the site of Pope’s celebrated villa, which Baroness Howe had purchased in 1807. She had subsequently ordered the villa and grotto to be demolished since she was, it is said, inconvenienced by the frequent flow of curious visitors.

In 1796 Jonathan had been appointed oculist to the Royal Household. Several members of the royal family were his patients, with whom he was to maintain close ties. The Princesses Sophia and Mary, and their brothers the Dukes of Cumberland and Cambridge, stood sponsor at the christening of his second son, Ernest Adolphus, born 1808. Sir Jonathan was invested as a Knight of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order (KH) in 1824, becoming KCH in 1827 and GCH in 1830 (this Order being in the gift of the King). 

Sir Jonathan’s papers, which include numerous affectionate letters from members of the royal family, are now in the Warwickshire County Record Office. Writing to his eldest son, Sir Jonathan gives a moving account of the death of George IV, at which he was present: ‘My beloved Friend & Monarch expired in my Arms at ¼ past 3 oClock on the Morning of Yesterday ... he as usual took my Hand in his & I felt him instantly press it harder than usual & he looked at me with an eager Eye & exclaimed, “My dear Boy this is Death.” These were the last Words he uttered ...’.

An interesting group of precious objects given to Sir Jonathan by George IV and other members of the royal family, including a jewelled tortoiseshell snuff box given to him by the King on his coronation in 1821, was sold by the executors of his descendant, Sir Wathen Arthur Waller, in 1947. It is known, furthermore, that a group of seals modelled as busts of George IV were made for the royal family and their entourage (Duke of Sussex, ‘A gold seal, with a bust of George IV, on a column, with white cornelian foot’; Duke of Cambridge, ‘A pair of seals, the handles of silver-gilt, formed as pedestals, with busts of George IV’).

Provenance:

A descendant of the Waller family, according to whom the seal was presented to Sir Jonathan Wathen Waller following the death of George IV.

The arms do not bear the badge of a Baronet, and could therefore have been used by either of Sir Jonathan’s sons before 1853 (although the second son should have used a crescent for difference), but not by the Baronet himself.

Seal Specification

Height: 65 mm

Diameter of matrix: 19mm x 17mm 

Weight:  72g