Commonwealth Seal

Thomas Simon’s work as an engraver of seals was prolific. In a 25 year period he was responsible for nearly every official seal , including those of the state, the colonies, such as Jamaica, Virginia and Barbados, county seals and, in addition, many personal seals. These were often works of remarkable quality, perhaps nowhere best demonstrated than on the first seals of the newly established Commonwealth. For centuries, the Great Seal of the Realm had depicted an image of the monarch and it would have been remarkable and unprecedented to see one, like the example shown here, which did not. In place of the monarch, Simon’s Commonwealth seal depicts Parliament in session on the obverse whilst the reverse features a detailed cartographic representation of England, Wales, Ireland and the Channel Islands.