Design for the Irish Seal of Queen Elizabeth

Nicholas Hilliard

Summary

A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing by Nicholas Hilliard. The drawing shows a design for a seal with the picture of a Queen encased in a circular frame. The Queen is sitting on a throne and is holding a sceptre in her right hand and the Sovereign's orb in her left. She is wearing a crown and has a delicate ruff around her neck. An arm enters the composition on either side of her and holds up a part of the sleeve of her gown. To the right and left of the thrown is a coat of arms: the one of the left has a harp on it and the one on the right has three crowns. Behind the throne are three architectural arches. Text from the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society: "No. 32 NICHOLAS HILLIARD (b. 1537; d. 1619) DESIGN FOR THE IRISH SEAL OF QUEEN ELIZABETH Collection of Mr. Peter Gellatly. Pen drawing in Indian ink, over a pencil outline, on vellum. 12.9 x 12.9 cm. (5 1/16 x 5 1/16 in.); outer diameter 12.7 cm. (5 in.), inner diameter 10.5 cm. (4 1/8 in.) On either side of the Queen is a Tudor rose and crown; a third rose is placed beneath her feet. The shield at her right hand contains the Irish harp, the other three crowns in pale, and emblem that occurs on the Irish coinage long before the assumption of the style 'Rex Hiberniae' by Henry VIII, so that the three crowns are not those of England, France and Ireland, as the inscription on the circular rim might suggest. Now barely legible, this inscription runs as follows: ELISABET D. G. ANGLIE FRAN. ET HIBERNIE REGINA. The design resembles that of the Great Seal of England, in the second form used by Elizabeth, 1586-1603 (Pl. xxiii of Wyon's 'Great Seals of England', 1887), but the dimensions are smaller. In the seal the Queen appears older than in the drawing, and she looks to the left. The hands extended from clouds, raising her mantle, appear on the seal, so do the tassels, and the arrangement of the dress is similar. The two shields, however, bear the arms of England and France, quarterly, while the Irish harp is introduced, with the rose and lily, on the reverse. The Irish emblems so prominently placed on Mr. Gellatly's drawing, clearly a design for an obverse, suggest that this was to be a variant of the Great Seal intended specially for use in Ireland. Such a seal certainly existed at this period, for it is often mentioned in the Calendars of Irish State Papers, but I have not been able to hear of an extant impression. The Great Seal of 1586 differs markedly from its predecessor, but agrees with this Irish design in so many essential and characteristic features that we are justified in attributing both to the same artist. The Great Seal is known to be the work of Nicholas Hilliard, the privileged limner of the Queen, for a patent exists, dated 1587, conferring on Hilliard a lease of the Manner of Poyle, Stanmore, for twenty-one years, as a reward for engraving the seal. The extreme delicacy of the drawing of the head, ruff, crown, and jewels, to which the reproduction cannot do entire justice, is worthy of the hand of that famous miniaturist. ... C. D."