c1750 Armorial Marriage Steel Fob Seal - Elephant Crest

Seal Detail

A rare and unusual steel fob seal, dating to circa 1750, English, and unusual in its nature because of use of an elephant as a crest, above two shields representing an alliance and elaborate floral decoration.  The arms are those of an at present unidentified family impaling the arms of another unknown family.  Although an exhaustive search has been made in various heraldic authorities no conclusive identification of both arms has been achieved.  Even the use of an elephant in the crest would have assisted in identifying the arms of the husband which would have led, perhaps, to the identification of his wife's family.  Sadly, this has not been the case here! 

Unusually, the seal does, however, have a maker's name stamped into the upper rim, reading: B GILES

Seal Specification

Height 30mm

Diameter of matrix  20mmx21mm 

Weightv10g