THE WILLIAM LOWTHER DESK WAX SEAL

Seal Detail - as featured on p.141 of our "Matrix" Book

The handle is cast as the figure of a prancing lion supporting a cartouche, with enamelled monogram wl above the date 1851, on a curved, tapering bloodstone column of cut-cornered rectangular section, the collar and cushion engraved with arabesques, the latter overlaid with turquoise-set openwork fleurs-de-lis. The almost circular oval banded agate matrix is finely engraved with a quatrefoil enclosing a coat of arms within an inscription in gothic script, between flowing scrolls.

The inscription reads: Sigillum gulielmi lowther (‘The seal of William Lowther’). The arms are those of Lowther.

William Lowther (1821–1912), diplomat and MP, was the third son of the Hon. Henry Cecil Lowther, brother of the 3rd Earl of Lonsdale and uncle of the celebrated sportsman, the ‘Yellow Earl’ of Lonsdale. He married Charlotte Alice, daughter of 1st Baron Wensleydale, in 1853, and they had four sons and three daughters. Their house, the red-brick Lowther Lodge in Kensington Gore, designed by Norman Shaw, is now the headquarters of the Royal Geographical Society. Lowther was raised to the rank of an earl’s son by royal warrant in 1872. The seal presumably commemorated Lowther’s 30th birthday in 1851.

Provenance:

Bracketts, Tunbridge Wells, 5 December 2002, lot 1279.

Provenance

The Matrix Collection, Number 70, Pg. 141

Bracketts, Tunbridge Wells, 5th December 2002, lot 1279

Seal Specification

Height:  90mm

Diameter of matrix:  22mm 

Weight:  82g