The Wooden Collection
Antique Seal Stamps Crafted from Precious Woods, including Ebony, Walnut, and Rosewood
Ref 302 - ♥♥♥♥♥
This antique seal is engraved with canting arms that could have been those of Maurice Bicher, écuyer, conseiller du Roi and trésorier under the Ancien Régime. In heraldry, canting arms (armoiries parlantes) visually allude to the bearer’s name through a symbolic pun. In this case, the shield shows a hind (biche), which directly echoes the surname Bicher, making the arms “speak” the family name. Maurice Bicher belonged to the administration of the French monarchy. The title écuyer indicated noble standing in the lesser nobility. As conseiller du Roi, he served within the royal administration, while his office as trésorier placed him within the financial system responsible for managing royal revenues and payments. Such offices were commonly associated with the noblesse de robe, whose members held judicial and financial posts and could, over time, transmit noble status to their descendants.
Ref 303 - ♥♥♥♥♥
This seal presents the arms of the de Courtarvel family, blazoned: D’azur au sautoir d’or accompagné de seize losanges du même, posés quatre en croix et douze en orle. The family held the titles marquis de Pezé, de Saint-Rémy et de Courtarvel and possessed numerous seigneuries, including La Lucazière, Saint-Germain, Baillou, Valennes, Boursay, Trémigon, Verdes, Boisgency, Monterestin and Lierville. The seal may have belonged to Claude or Jules or de Courtarvel, born in 1761 and 1768. Behind the shield appears an eight-pointed cross, identifiable as the cross of the Order of Saint-John of Jerusalem, later known as the Order of Malta. This indicates that the owner of the seal was a Knight of Malta, a distinction reserved for men of proven nobility. Members of the Courtarvel family are indeed recorded among the knights of the order during the 17th and 18th centuries, including André de Courtarvel in 1618 and several sons of René-César de Courtarvel. The chief bearing a cross also refers to the same institution, as in many armorial representations of Hospitaller knights a cross is added to the shield itself in addition to the large cross placed behind it. The decoration placed beneath the shield appears to represent the badge of the Ordre royal et militaire de Saint-Louis, whose knights wore a cross suspended from a ribbon. This distinction was notably awarded to Claude and Jules de Courtarvel, which strengthens the possibility that this seal may have belonged to one of them.
The seal displays the arms of the de Courtarvel family, accompanied in chief by the cross of the Knights of Malta, with an eight-pointed cross set behind the shield.
Ref 308 - ♥♥♥♥♥
This wooden seal is possibly related to the Santa Maria family, from Calalonia, in Spain. The family appears to have been an old armigerous lineage of the Segarra region, documented from at least the early fourteenth century. References to individuals in Cervera and Solsona, together with the account of a knight serving King James II of Aragon in 1309, place the family within the milieu of the Catalan cavallers, that is, the lesser nobility. Their coat of arms, featuring an azure field with wavy silver bars and three stars in chief, is consistent with medieval Iberian heraldic practice and suggests a recognized, though not elevated, social standing. Like many Catalan surnames, “Santa Maria” is toponymic and was adopted independently by several unrelated families, typically deriving from a local church, estate, or settlement bearing that name. Consequently, the lineage in question should be understood as one among several distinct families, possessing noble status without evidence of a hereditary title.
Ref 309 - ♥♥♥♥♥
This seal belonged to the Italian Suardi family, also written Suardo and occasionally Soardo in older forms. They were one of the oldest and most important noble families of Bergamo, with origins that can be traced to Pietro, called Suardo, in the 11th century, and from whom numerous branches developed over time. They played a major role in communal politics, producing consuls, podestà, captains, bishops, diplomats, and later senators and public officials. The family divided into many branches, including the Ruggeri, Regolati, Testa, Secco-Suardo, the Suardi counts of Trescore, the Suardo counts, and the Suardi of Ranzanico. This branching explains why the name appears in several forms and why titles, residences, and heraldic details are not always identical from one line to another. The family possessed numerous residences and estates in Bergamo and its territory, including palaces in the city and properties at Trescore.
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Count Galeozzo Secco Suardo
Arms of the Suardi family
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Countess Secco Suardo
Ref 313 - ♥♥♥♥♥
This antique seal bears the arms of the Brentano (or Brentani) family, an old lineage originating from the Lake Como, in Italy. References place the family in this region as early as the late Middle Ages, where it was regarded as a local noble house. Over time, the family divided into several branches, often taking their names from estates or localities. From the 17th century onward, members of the family migrated northward, particularly to Frankfurt am Main, attracted by the opportunities of long-distance trade. There, the Brentanos became a prominent merchant dynasty, dealing in commodities such as wine and colonial goods. This expansion explains the presence of numerous branches in German-speaking regions, as reflected in armorial collections mentioning Frankfurt, Baden, Bavaria, Saxony, and Austria. The designation “von Comersee” recalls their origin from Lake Como. The Brentano family produced notable figures, such as Clemens Brentano and the philosopher Franz Brentano. The multiplication of branches led to variations in their coats of arms.
Clemens Brentano
Ref 314 - ♥♥♥♥♥
This is a seal of the Seuberlich family, a German-Baltic lineage originally from East Prussia, which became established in Riga from the second half of the 18th century. It was not an old noble house, but rather a family of the educated urban elite, including pastors, merchants, municipal officials, writers, and later genealogists. An early figure was Magister Friedrich Seuberlich (1668 - 1729), an Evangelical clergyman at Rastenburg/Kętrzyn, recorded as pastor there from 1703 to 1729. Later, the family’s centre shifted to Riga. Johann George (1736 - 1794) was an innkeeper at the “Golden Anchor” in Riga, while Robert Joachim (1799/1800 - 1856) became mayor of Riga, showing the family’s rise within Baltic German civic society. The best-known member was Erich Seuberlich (1882 - 1946), a German-Baltic genealogist and author of a major genealogical work on Baltic families. The arms, showing a pelican feeding its young, fit well with a learned Protestant family tradition, symbolizing sacrifice, piety, and service.
Ref 316 - ♥♥♥♥♥
Looking at the round shape of the shield and the presence of a coronet of marquis, we could speculate that this seal belonged to Marie Geneviève Rosalie or her sister Marie Bonne Henriette Le Bret. While their father, Cardin Le Bret, was a count, they both married a marquis. The Le Bret family is a French noble lineage originating from Gisors in Normandy, whose rise illustrates the typical trajectory of the noblesse de robe. . Its ennoblement dates to 1578, when members, already established as jurists, secured noble status through high judicial office. In its early generations, the family bore the usual style of écuyer and held various seigneuries, including Flacourt, Nucourt, Pantin, and Selles-sur-Cher. These designations reflected landholding and social rank but did not constitute formal titles. Among its most prominent figures was Cardin Le Bret (1558–1655), a jurist closely associated with Cardinal Richelieu and author of an influential treatise on royal sovereignty, which supported the development of absolute monarchy. His descendants continued this tradition of service. Pierre-Cardin Le Bret (1639–1710) held major administrative posts as an intendant and later became First President of the Parliament of Provence. Another notable figure, Pierre Le Bret de Flacourt, served as a naval officer under Louis XIV. The family reached the height of its social elevation in the 18th century, when a member of the senior branch, Cardin Le Bret de Flacourt (1675–1734), was granted the title of Comte de Selles in 1727. A German branch of the Le Bret family, known as Le Bret von Nucourt, originated after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), when Protestants left France. Nicolas Le Bret settled in Württemberg, and the family later established itself in Bavaria.
Johann Friedrich Le Bret von Nucourt
Seal engraved with the arms of the Le Bret family
Marguerite Henriette Le Bret.
Ref 318 - ♥♥♥♥♥
This important and rather large seal is engraved with the arms of the Mancini-Mazarini family. The inscription on its handle make the object even more interesting. While the original lineage was the ancient Roman noble House of Mancini, the celebrated Mancini-Mazarini family branch originated from the marriage of Michele Lorenzo (Michel-Laurent) Mancini and Girolama (Geronima) Mazzarini, sister of the famous Cardinal Mazarin. Following the extraordinary rise of Cardinal Mazarin in France, who succeeded Cardinal Richelieu as first minister of Louis XIII, and then of Louis XIV. the fortunes and identities of the two families became closely intertwined. The compound style Mancini-Mazarini was subsequently adopted by descendants who inherited the titles, wealth, and prestige associated with Mazarin and his heirs. This union proved historically decisive, as the children of Lorenzo Mancini and Geronima Mazzarini - the famous Mazarinettes - entered the highest circles of European aristocracy. Among them were Marie Mancini, the first great love of Louis XIV, Olympia Mancini, mother of Prince Eugene of Savoy, Hortense Mancini, Duchess of Mazarin and later mistress of Charles II of England, and Philippe Mancini, Duke of Nevers, from whom descended the later princely branch generally styled Mancini-Mazarini. Thus, although the alliance between Michele Lorenzo Mancini and Geronima Mazzarini united the two families' identities, it was through their descendants in France that the name Mancini-Mazarini became a firmly established dynastic house.
Arms of the Mancini family
Girolama Mazarini
Philippe Mancini, Duke of Nevers from 1661 to 1707
Arms of the Mazarini family
Mancini-Mazarini inscription on the seal
Louis-Jules Mancini-Mazarini
Ref 319 - ♥♥♥♥♥
This seal is engraved with the arms of Gottlieb Wilhelm Bischoff (1797–1854), who was a German botanist, university professor, and an important figure in early 19th-century plant science. He was born in Dürkheim, Germany. He became professor of botany in 1833, and from 1839 served as director of the botanical garden of Heidelberg. Bischoff’s scientific work focused mainly on cryptogamic plants, especially mosses and liverworts. He was among the first to study their reproductive structures in a systematic way and is credited with introducing key botanical terms such as archegonium and antheridium, which remain in use today. He also published several important botanical works, including textbooks and reference works that contributed to the development of plant morphology and terminology in the 19th century. His teaching influenced a number of later botanists, and he was elected to the Leopoldina, one of the oldest scientific academies in Europe. Bischoff died in Heidelberg on 11 September 1854. His name is preserved in botany through the plant genus Bischofia, named in his honor.
Gerry's Collection of Antique Seal Stamps.