This handsome volume provides basic descriptions and often multiple images in colour of 1,439 seals that circulated in London between c 1050 (when seals began to be more widespread) until c 1300. Many were once owned by residents of the city; most can now be found in the collections of the London Metropolitan Archives, The National Archives and the archives of St Bartholomew’s Hospital. Because several impressions of the same seal are often shown, it is sometimes possible to reconstruct what a complete original would have looked like. An added bonus is being able to see the different colours of wax used by the owner for the same seal. The examples cover a broad section of society (no cherry-picking by Victorian antiquaries here!): from the great seal of the monarch to those of artisans, women, churchmen and religious houses, as well as the seals of leaders and the Corporation of the City itself. Especially interesting is the variety of tools depicted, such as shears, scissors, axes and hammers. The catalogue opens with a detailed overview of medieval seals, including important discussions of contemporary seal engravers (and sellers) in the city and the use of seals in a judicial and cultural context. Also noteworthy is McEwan’s analysis of the inclusion of personal names in the seal legend and, when given a choice, which name the seal owner might prefer.

The catalogue is basically a hard copy print version of what was originally conceived as a digital project. Because of this, as the author explains, the designs portrayed on the seals have been classified at the primary level of meaning; in other words, a simple, generic description. Thus, those depicting the Virgin Mary are described as, and can be found in the index under, a woman holding a child. The obverse of Stephen Langton’s important seal as archbishop of Canterbury, illustrating the martyrdom of Becket – a detailed and crowded scene – is simply catalogued as a full-length human (presumably one of the perpetrators). A she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus (very probably a Classical intaglio gem) is described as a ‘beast body’. This inevitably detracts from the rich variety of images and iconography used. It also severely limits the usefulness of the index of motifs. There is an index of names, but not of persons, though the list of occupations is useful. It is to be hoped that future digital projects reliant on databases might better serve a printed version in the description of the seal imagery employed.

The book is beautifully produced, and the author is to be congratulated on having taken so many fine photographs himself. It provides an extraordinary, representative sample of the seals coming in to, and going out of, a busy medieval metropolis over a period of two and half centuries when seal usage was perhaps at its height. The clear photographs, transcribed legends (often so difficult to decipher), measurements (so important in distinguishing similar looking seals) and dating, along with full and accurate archival references, are to be commended. There is much here not only for sigillographers, but also for art and social historians, and especially for those engaged in the history of the city. There is also much to learn about how Londoners from all walks of life wished others to see them, thus providing a unique portrayal of society in the capital through (to quote McEwan) ‘the words and images of its people’.