Wax Seal Of Robert Burns, From His Great-Granddaughter Martha Burns Everitt Thomas, With An 1836 Silhouette Engraving Of Burns Showing The Seal's Design [Robert Burns] Varia

[Scotland and County Wexford, Ireland, 1836-1906; 1913]. 10¼ x 4½ inches. Engraving and mounted wax seal; framed and glazed together; not examined out of frame; very good. Impression wax seal of Scottish poet Robert Burns, made from the original seal designed by him. The actual seal was inherited by Robert Burns Jr. and then by his granddaughter, Martha Burns Everitt Thomas (1839-1906), who periodically resided in Ireland. A note by Ben R. Browne in 1913, affixed to the frame's back, states that he received the wax seal from "Miss Camilla Hanton of Ballyfane, Carne [Parish], Co. Wexford Ireland who was the executor of the will of Mrs. Martha Burns Everitt Thomas, the great-granddaughter of the poet. I visited the latter in childhood at Carne rectory. She had the Poet's Bible & Seal at one time. A number of impressions of the seal were made and distributed at the centenary of the Poet's death, one of which I saw at Carne and another at Dumfries." Above Browne's note, a 19th-century handwritten extract from a letter by Burns details his self-designed seal with its symbols representing his Ayrshire home and pastoral themes. A memo nearby states it was "now in the possession of.Mrs. Martha Burns Thomas." The current wax seal lacks the central shield in its impression. However, the crest-a wood lark on a bay sprig-is visible at the top, along with the outer inscriptions: "Wood Notes Wild" above and "Better a wee bush than nae beild" (Better a small bush than no shelter) below. The wax seal may have been given to Camilla Hanton by Martha, who then passed it to Browne. Or, it originated directly from Martha Burns Everitt Thomas' estate and was handed to Browne by Hanton.