by We make Invitations, Cards, Wax Seals, and more for all the ways you love to connect. Explore our catalog or design your own with our custom services.. Unique wax seals stamps and sealing waxes created in our Seattle area studio. Online since 1997, LetterSeals.com is a family business, making wax stamps to order and shipping in 1-2 working days. Custom logo wax seal stamps, initials, monograms & designs. Creators of glue gun sealing wax.
Sealing wax is a wax material which, after melting, hardens quickly (to paper, parchment, ribbons and wire, and other material), forming a seal that is difficult to break without noticeable tampering. Wax is used to verify that something such as a document is unopened, to verify the sender’s identity (for example with a seal stamp or signet ring), and as decoration. Sealing wax can also be used to take impressions of other seals. Wax was used to seal letters close and later, from about the 16th century, envelopes. Long before sealing wax was employed, the Romans used bitumen for this purpose.
Composition
Formulas vary, but there was a major shift after European trade with the Indies opened. In the Middle Ages, sealing wax was typically made of beeswax and “Venice turpentine”, a greenish-yellow resinous extract of the European larch tree. The earliest wax of this kind was uncoloured. Later the wax was coloured red with vermilion. From the 16th century it was compounded of various proportions of shellac, turpentine, resin, chalk or plaster, and colouring matter (often vermilion, or red lead), but not necessarily beeswax. The proportion of chalk varied; coarser grades are used to seal wine bottles and fruit preserves, finer grades for documents. In some situations, such as putting large seals on public documents, beeswax was used. On occasion, sealing wax has historically been perfumed by ambergris, musk and other scents.
By 1866, many different colours were available: gold (using mica), blue (using smalt or verditer), black (using verdigris or lamp black), white (using bismuth nitrate or lead white), yellow (using the mercuric mineral turpeth, also known as Schuetteite), green (using verdigris) and so on. Some users, such as the British Crown, assign different colours to different types of documents. Today a range of synthetic colours is available.
Method of application
Sealing wax is available in the form of sticks, sometimes with a wick, or as granules. The stick is melted at one end (but not ignited or blackened), or the granules heated in a spoon, normally using a flame, and then placed where required, usually on the flap of an envelope. While the wax is still soft and warm, the seal (preferably at the same temperature as the wax, for the best impression) should be quickly and firmly pressed into it and released.
Modern use
At the end of 19th century and in the first half of the 20th century, sealing wax was used in laboratories as a vacuum cement. It was gradually replaced by other materials, like plasticine, but according to Nobel Laureate Patrick Blackett, “at one time it might have been hard to find in an English laboratory an apparatus which did not use red Bank of England sealing-wax as a vacuum cement.”
Since the advent of a postal system, the use of sealing wax has become more for ceremony than security. Modern times have required new styles of wax, allowing for mailing of the seal without damage or removal. These new waxes are flexible for mailing and are referred to as glue-gun sealing wax, faux sealing wax and flexible sealing wax. Traditional sealing wax candles are produced in Canada, Spain, Mexico, France, Italy and Scotland, with formulations similar to those used historically.
See also
- Bulla (seal)
- Papal bull
- Tamper-evident
- Letterlocking
- Wax jack
References
External links
- “Sealing Wax” . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
- How to use sealing wax
How To Make Wax Seals At Home at Scott Cahill blog
How to make wax seals diy sealing wax setup Artofit
Wax Seal Maker Your Guide to Sealing Success
Wax Seal Beginners Guide Everything You Need to Know Olive Paperie Co.
Wax Seal Stamps Kit Creative Envelope Sealer Set Retro Seals Stamp Oak
Wax Seals and Sealing Wax Custom Wax N Seals
Sealing Set, Wax Seal Set, Antique Wax Seal Etsy
Wax Seal How To at Andrea Johns blog
Traditional & Breakable Sealing Waxes
Wax Seals for All Your Regencycore Needs
ZRCHLS Wax Seal Kit, Devil’s Eye Wax Seal Stamp with 10pcs
DIFFERENT TYPES OF SEALING WAX Heirloom Seals
Wax Seal Maker Your Guide to Sealing Success
Wax Sealing Tips Perfectly Circular Wax Seals YouTube
5 Unique and Creative Wax Seal DIY Ideas with Step by Step Tutorials
How to make Wax Seals with Wicked Wax Sticks Step by Step Tutorial
12pcs Wax Seal Stamp Set, 12 Styles Sealing Wax Stamp Heads
How To Make Wax Seals At Home at Scott Cahill blog
Personalized Wax Seal,personalized Wedding Wax Seal Stamp With 2
7 GAME CHANGING Wax Seal Tips and Tricks — Katrina Crouch Blushed Design
Personalized Laser Engraved Wax Stamps, Letter sealing sticks for glue guns in large range of colors. Bottle Dipping wax and tear ribbons Custom Wax N Seals. Explore sealing wax for crafts, scrapbooking, and letter writing. Choose from sticks, beads, and specialty colors.
