MEDIEVAL SEAL MATRIX

1250

Medieval silver seal matrix, pointed oval (vesica) seal of Sibilla de Gournay dating to AD 1250-1316.The face of the seal is inscribed with a full length design of a standing women head turned to left on the matrix, right on an impression, looking towards a hawk she holds up on her left hand. The jesses of the hawk hang down below. The womens right hand is held to her breast. She wears a full length loose gown with a rounded neckline, belted at the waist. Over this she wears a full length cloak, the fur lining of which is visible at it is turned back over her raised left arm. A cord fasterns the cloak across the breast and there is a suggestion of attachments at each end of the cord, linking the ends to the upper corners of the cloaks neckline. The womens hair is done up in buns to each side of her head (probably in a crespine or caul) with a square headdress on top (a fillet) over which she wears a veil covering the headdress, hair and possibly her neck (gorget). This style was popular in the later 13th century suggesting a date up to c.1300.The women is standing on a pedestal with a flat top supported by a column. The column has a vertical base which starts at the bottom corner of the matrix and is flanked by elaborate curled foliate branches. Above this base is a short horizontal bar from which springs the columns capital in the form of a central fleur de lis flanked by curled fronds to either side. The flat top on which the women stands breaks the line of the inner border around the central design. This border is a pellet line flanked by straight lines. There is a similar outer border around the edge of the matrix and the base of the column is within this.Between the inner and outer border is the inscription starting with a cross pattee: SIGILL' : SIBILLE : D' : GVRNAI, Seal of Sybille of Gourney.The sides of the matrix are vertical adjacent to the front face then curve inwards in a concave curve to meet the flat back giving a recessed border around the back. The back is plain arpart form a loop adjacent to the upper point. This loop has a faceted outer face and appears to rest on a slight base. This facetting seems unusual on seals of this period and may suggets the loop have been repaired since the seal was found.Seals of pointed oval shape featuring the full length portrait of the owner, often holding a hawk and/or a lily were used at this period by women of noble birth and ecclesiastics. This example is that of Sibilla de Gournay. She was born in 1231, the daughter of Sir Hugh de Vivonne (vivonne, Vienne, France 1195-1249 Chewton, Somerset) Sheriff of Somerset and his wife Mabel, nee Malet. Mabels father, William Malet (before 1175-1215) lord of the manor of Curry Malet and Shepton Mallet, was one of the guarantors of Magna Carta. Sibilla de Vivonne's husband, Anselm de Gournay of Beverstone and Harptree, whom she married in 1250 was born in 1229 and died in 1286. She died in 1316 at Bovey Tracey, Devon.