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D2014-CMD. Seal
Watch Seal with Washington Coat of Arms
D2014-CMD. Seal

Watch Seal with Washington Coat of Arms

Date1771
Maker Benjamin Gurden
OriginAmerica, Virginia (gold socket) and England, London (citrine) (probably)
MediumGold, citrine
DimensionsOL: 1.576" from table of citrine to top of suspension ring OH: 1.072" across face of stone from top to bottom of bezel OH: 1.103" across socket from top to bottom OW: 0.977" across socket from side to side
Credit LineGift of Mike and Carolyn McNamara
Object number2014-184
DescriptionOval gold and citrine watch seal with faceted edge, cut with the coat of arms of the Washington family in reverse within an asymmetrical cartouche with rococo mantling. A small snake with open mouth is cut into the mantling at approximately 10:00 o’clock. The citrine set in a gold socket with separate narrow inner bezel, plain sides, and slightly domed back with traces of simple bright-cut engraved border at edge of back. Four tapered leaf-shaped arms terminating in scrolls extend from back of socket to a gold ball beneath a hanging loop with small gold bead at top. Each leaf-shaped arm engraved with simple bright-cut flower and foliage.


Label TextOn July 18, 1771, George Washington wrote from Williamsburg to London ordering: “a topaz or some other handsome stone fixed in the gold socket sent, with the Washington arms neatly engraved thereon.” The seal, depicted in Charles Willson Peale’s 1776 portrait of Washington at Boston, is one of the most personal items associated with our first president.

Citrine engraved and set by Benjamin Gurden, wholesale jeweler, 114 Wood St., London
Gold socket, maker unknown, probably Williamsburg, Virginia.

On July 20, 1771, George Washington wrote from his home at Mount Vernon to his London factors, Robert Cary & Company. The missive largely consisted of complaints about the difficulties of receiving satisfactory goods in a timely manner at his Virginia plantation from his overseas agents.i Several other documents were sent along with the letter, including a lengthy “Enclosure / Invoice to Robert Cary & Company” dated [Williamsburg] 18th July 1771, listing numerous goods he wanted the firm to procure on his behalf. Among the order were requests for:

"A Topaz or some other handsome Stone fixd in the gold Sockt Sent, wt. the Washington Arms neatly engravd thereon
Another Stone fixd in the other gold Socket with the Washington Crest--& the Watch Chn repd."

The document was signed “Go: Washington” and a postscript was added below: “Note—the Watch Chain & Seal Sockets were given to Captn Peterson. G.W—n”.ii Captain Peterson was Jacob Peterson, who regularly transported shipments of tobacco from Washington’s plantations to his London factors. Among other vessels, Peterson captained the Betty, the Hazard, the Brilliant, the Nautilus, and The Rising Sun.iii

The following February, Captain James Page arrived in the Potomac River from London in command of The Trimley.iv He carried goods sent by Robert Cary & Company for George Washington which included an order from Benjamin Gurden, wholesale jeweler at 114 Wood Street, London.v

Cary’s invoice was dated 3 December 1771; it reads:
To a Topaz & engraving Coat of Arms on Do 2. 7 .6
To New Bezell & setting gold seal .10.
To a gold Seal wt. the Crest on Do 1.13.0 9
To repg gold Watch Chain & 3 New Swivels . . . 1. 3.0vi


George Washington’s “Invoice to Robert Cary & Company” of July 18, 1771, clearly states that the gold sockets for his two seals were sent from Virginia to London. He also orders a seal later in the same year for Martha’s son Jacky, specifying that a gold socket was sent. This gives rise to the question of the origin of the gold mounting for the topaz seal. Numerous entries in Washington’s cash accounts, diary, and guardian accounts record payments from Washington to the Williamsburg silversmith James Craig, who is often listed as “Craik jeweller”.vii Most of these entries do not specify the items purchased or repaired, but it seems reasonable to assume that Craig may have been the source for the socket of the “topaz” seal. The design and fabrication of the gold socket do not reflect London work of the period but are more typical of “country work” of the colonies.

i The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition, ed. Theodore J. Crackel. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2008. http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/GEWN-02-08-02-0339-0001 [accessed 29 Sep 2014]. Colonial Series (7 July 1748–15 June 1775), Volume 8 (24 June 1767–25 December 1771). Note: subsequent citations will be to Canonic URL.
ii http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/GEWN-02-08-02-0339-0002 [accessed 29 Sep 2014]
iii Peterson is mentioned repeatedly in the Paper of George Washington, as well was in The Virginia Gazette; see for example: June 8, 1769; January 10, 1771; May 23, 1771; May 28, 1772; and July 23, 1772.
iv The Virginia Gazette, February 27, 1772.
v Arthur G. Grimwade, London Goldsmiths, 1697—1837: Their Marks and Lives, 3d ed., rev. and enl. (London: Faber and Faber, 1990), 356.
vi http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/GEWN-02-08-02-0366 [accessed 05 Oct 2014]
vii See for example: http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/GEWN-02-06-02-0169; http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/GEWN-02-07-02-0168; http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/GEWN-02-08-02-0185; http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/GEWN-02-08-02-0231; http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/GEWN-01-02-02-0005-0015-0018; and http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/GEWN-02-07-02-0181 [all accessed 10 Oct 2014]


InscribedEngraved with the Washington coat of arms, cut in reverse. The Washington arms are blazoned as “argent 2 bars gules. In chief 3 mullets gules.” The crest is blazoned as “out of a ducal coronet an eagle rising or” The motto, which is not engraved on the seal, is “Exitus acta probat” (“The end justifies the means”). The shape of the shield enclosing a coat of arms will change over time to reflect current taste. The arms on the Washington seal are rendered in the rococo fashion. This is seen in the peanut-shaped cartouche or shield, the foliate and shell mantling of the decorative surround, and even in the slight arching of the bars in the main field, which are rendered to suggest a three-dimension curvature of the shield.
ProvenanceMike and Carolyn McNamara
Exhibition(s)