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Series
Public Record Office: Search Department (and Successors): Digitised Seals Register
Catalogue reference: QFA 1
What's it about?
QFA 1
An index of about 30,000 handwritten index cards describing seals held in The National Archives and arranged by categories, for example, Royal, Official Monastic, Armorial. Each card (or set of cards) gives the name of the seal owner, the date of...
Full description and record details
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Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
- QFA 1
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Title (The name of the record)
- Public Record Office: Search Department (and Successors): Digitised Seals Register
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Date (When the record was created)
- 1913-2012
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Description (What the record is about)
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An index of about 30,000 handwritten index cards describing seals held in The National Archives and arranged by categories, for example, Royal, Official Monastic, Armorial. Each card (or set of cards) gives the name of the seal owner, the date of the document to which the seal is attached, and the colour, shape, size, subject of design, and legend of each seal with a cross reference to further (poorer) impressions in The National Archives and to examples described the British Museum [Library] Catalogue of Seals (1886-1900). Green cards give bibliographical information to seals whether held in The National Archives or not; many of the books and journals referred to are in The National Archives Library.
The index cards are in English, with some Latin and overseas legends within the seal descriptions.
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Arrangement (Information about the filing sequence or logical order of the record)
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The arrangement is by original index card drawers with sub-divisions within each drawer.
The National Archives's reference given on the front of the card is to the seal described there, with further inferior examples listed whether or not in the same series. In some cases these pre-date the modern letter coding system, for example 'Loose seals' or 'Scots Docts' but these can be converted by referring to Discovery or Guiseppi’s, Guide to the Contents to the Public Record Office, 3 vols (1963).
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Legal status (A note as to whether the record being described is a Public Record or not)
- Not Public Record(s)
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Language (The language of the record)
- English and Latin
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Creator(s) (The creator of the record)
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- Public Record Office, 1838-2003
- The National Archives, 2003-2003
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Physical description (The amount and form of the record)
- 40 electronic document(s)
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Access conditions (Information on conditions that restrict or affect access to the record)
- Available in digital format
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Immediate source of acquisition (When and where the record was acquired from)
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The National Archives
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Subjects (Categories and themes found in our collection (our subject list is under development, and some records may have no subjects or fewer than expected))
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Accumulation dates (The dates the record was accumulated)
- 1913 to 2012
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Accruals (Indicates whether the archive expects to receive further records in future)
- No further accruals are anticipated.
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Unpublished finding aids (A note of unpublished indexes, lists or guides to the record)
- For information on other finding aids to seals in The National Archives see the Research Guide on Seals.
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Selection and destruction information (Information about how the record was selected for archiving)
- The cards provide the main finding aid to seals in The National Archives. They were digitised as part of Modernizing Public Services Programme. The original cards are held at Kew.
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Administrative / biographical background (Historical or biographical information about the creator of the record and the context of its creation)
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The index was begun in 1913 by Sir William St John Hope, followed by R C Fowler, an assistant keeper, until his death in 1929. Henceforth cards were completed sporadically by staff in the Editorial and Search Departments (and their successors) of the Public Record Office and The National Archives.
In 2012 a team of volunteers under the guidance of a staff member at The National Archives, ensured that unsorted cards were placed in appropriate drawers and that information on the back of cards was either transferred to a new card (immediately following) or on to the front of the existing card. This did not include the transferring of stamped mould numbers as this number can be found in Collection Care and because moulds are now very rarely made.
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Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C13431170/
Catalogue hierarchy
41 records
Within the department: QFA
Supplementary Finding Aids from The National Archives
You are currently looking at the series: QFA 1
Public Record Office: Search Department (and Successors): Digitised Seals Register
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