sealing wax

Letters sealed with sealing wax in a painting by Cornelis Norbertus Gysbrechts (1665).

Sealing wax was used to seal "letters close" and later (from about the 16th century) envelopes. It was also used to take the impression of seals on important documents, or to create a hermetic seal on containers. Now mainly used for decorative purposes, it was formerly used to ensure that the contents of the envelope were secure.

While exact recipes vary, they can generally be divided into those before and after the commencement of trade with the Indies. In the Middle Ages it was typically made of beeswax melted together with "Venice turpentine", a greenish-yellow resinous extract of the European Larch tree. The earliest such wax was uncoloured, somewhat later the wax was often coloured red with vermilion. From the 16th century it instead was compounded from a mixture of various proportions of shellac, turpentine, resin, chalk or plaster, and colouring matter (often still vermilion, or else red lead), but no actual wax. The proportion of chalk varied; coarser grades were also used to seal wine bottles and preserves, finer grades for documents. Originally the sealing wax was red, but later it might also be black (tinted with lamp black or ivory black) or green (tinted with verdigris). Some users such as the British Crown assigned different colours to different types of documents. Today a range of synthetic colours are available.

Sealing wax is usually available in the form of sticks, sometimes with a wick, or as granules. The stick is melted at one end, 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, a seal with a design (often of metal) is impressed in it, sealing the envelope.

This donor portrait of about 1455 shows a large coloured print attached to the wall with sealing wax. Petrus Christus, NGA, Washington

Modern day has brought sealing wax to a new level of use and application.

There are traditional sealing wax candles still produced in France and Scotland, using the same 300+ years recipes since the days of hand carried correspondance.

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 to be created, allowing for mailing of the seal without damage or removal.

These new waxes are flexible for mailing and are referred to a glue gun sealing wax, faux sealing wax, and flexible sealing wax.

See also

• Bulla (seal)
• Papal bull
• Tamper-evident

Sources

• LetterSeals.com Quoted source for modern sealing waxes.

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