Tournament:
its Periods and Phases,' by Mr. R. C. Clephan, was published the same
year.

Books on seals are much less numerous, though none the less ornate; for
engravings are practically essential here. They are, generally, scarce;
for the circle of readers to which such volumes appeal can never have
been a wide one; so it is improbable that large impressions of any of
them were printed. The 'Sigilla Comitum Flandriae' of Oliver Vredius, a
small folio, with nearly three hundred engravings of mediaeval seals, was
printed first at Bruges in 1639. It is a beautiful volume, the seals
being drawn to scale and exquisitely engraved by four Bruges
engravers--Samuel Lommelin, Adrian his son, Francis Schelhaver, and
Francis his son. Unfortunately the plates became worn after printing off
a few copies (especially those on pages 138, 213, 246), and the early
impressions are much to be preferred. A good test is to turn to the
engraved genealogical tree on the recto of leaf Cc6. In the later-printed
copies the foot of this engraving is most indistinct. A French
translation appeared at Bruges in 1643.

Two of the scarcest English books upon seals were compiled by clergymen.
The first, a thin quarto of 31 pages, is entitled 'A Dissertation upon
the Antiquity and Use of Seals in England. Collected by * * * * 1736,'
and was printed for William Mount and Thomas Page on Tower Hill in 1740.
Its author was the Rev. John Lewis, a former curate at Margate, who died
in 1746. There is an engraved frontispiece of seals, and several
copperplates in the text. It is very, very scarce, and it was some years
before our book-hunter succeeded in obtaining a copy. The other authority
was the Rev. George Henry Dashwood, of Stowe Bardolph. From his private
press he produced, in 1847, a quarto volume consisting of fourteen
engraved plates (by W. Taylor) of seals, with descriptions opposite. It
is entitled 'Engravings from Ancient Seals attached to Deeds and Charters
in the Muniment Room of Sir Thomas Hare, Baronet, of Stowe Bardolph,' and
is common enough. Copies on large paper are not infrequent. But in 1862 a
'second series' appeared. This consists of eight plates and descriptions,
and at the end are two leaves of notes to both series. Our book-hunter
has not yet come across a duplicate (even in the British Museum or at the
Antiquaries) of this second volume, which he was so fortunate as to find
a week after receiving the first.

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