Southwick

A seal of Southwick Priory was apparently this:

The Priory was dedicated to the BVM, but here we seem to have St Peter at the top, holding a key and a book and standing on a church.  Underneath, a canon? and the legend SIGILLU’M: PR’ : CRIS[?] CR[?]TESEY[?]E.  This is from a history of a neighbouring parish, and I have yet to check it all out, and so far, I'm unconvinced.  It bears striking resemblance to the 13th-century Dodnash Priory seal; the finds.org page says that 'Harvey & McGuinness (1996) illustrate a similar seal matrix of the Archdeacon of Cardigan on page 74, fig.69, which is dated to c.1292. "Seals of lesser church dignitaries followed a pattern similar to bishops' seals though smaller in size. Thus they are usually a pointed oval, by the late thirteenth century showing a saint - here the Virgin and Child - with suppliant figure below" (ibid, 74).'

Definitely Southwick is this one:

This is rather splendid.  The BVM sits enthroned, with Christ child on her knee, in a magnificent church - not just a canopy, but something resembling Salisbury Cathedral (13th century).  Those may be faces peering out of the windows (q.v. Merton).  The legend is SIGILLUM : ECCLESIE : SANCTE : MARIE : DE : SUWIKA.

According to one source (19th-century), this had a counterseal on an indenture of before 1216, on the reverse was a counterseal, ‘displaying an eagle and inscription : SIGILLUM GUIDONIS PRIORIS SVWICENSIS’.

However, Harvey and McGuinness date this to mid-13th - in fact c.1258 - which, from the style, looks convincing - so the 19th-c source needs checking!  The seal matrix is a stonker - it's got 3 parts.  The obverse is as pictured above (and right, below, on this picture from Harvey and McGuinness, p.14).

The two matrices to the left are an aesthetic delight.  You get your hot wax, stamp the middle one on it (with Christ and the Annunciation), and then you put a very thin layers of wax over this, and stamp the left-hand matrix.  This means that Christ and the Annunciation appear in the windows - but they give 'the impression added depth, even an effect of undercutting.' (H & McG, p.13.)


Although the seal design is unique, the BVM bears similarity to Gisburne's.

Seal description:  Tri-partite seal matrix, 7cm diameter (2 3/4"). Two lugs for lining up seal. 

c.1258/ mid-13th century.  Hampshire Record Office, 153M88/1.

------------------------------------------------------------

 

PS: the bibulous canons of Southwick.  I've just seen an entry in Bishop Woodlock's Register for 1308, being his visitation of Southwick.  He forbids the canons to go to the tavern in the village to eat or drink.