Looking for information on brass seals or stamps.  I have received a private
collection of historic artifacts for analysis and documentation that comes
from the floodplain area of the Maumee River (Ohio) below the battle site of
Fallen Timbers (1794).  The collection is apparently a long term site dating
1825-1875 based on ceramics, buttons (with marks ) and clay pipes (with
marks).
 
The only artifact which appears to date earlier (pre-War of 1812) is a brass
seal or stamp used for impressing some official design or emblem over hot wax
to seal correspondence of some type.  The arifact is 23 mm in height and 18
mm in width.  Its shape is the form of a crown (British?).  Decorative motifs
on both sides of the seal consist of a 5-pointed star, moon (?), half-moon,
and a floral design.  The upper portion of the crown is composed of two
separate sides both part of the base and bent inward towards each other until
they meet at the top.  The base of the seal device is circular and shows a
recessed groove along the upper portion of the base interior for holding the
actual engraved stamp, probably made of some organic material.
 
Does anyone know of good documentary sources for late-18th/early-19th
seals/stamps and any archaeolical sites that this type of artifact may have
been excavated and reported on?
 
Pat Tucker
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