Why Seals? How does one become a seal collector. It started when I was a picker from the age 7. Growing up on a farm in the fifties, local junk piles held treasures. In discards from a burnt down long abandoned Antique shop, a brass box was uncovered, dragons and pierced hand hammered brass, wood parts burnt off. 57 years later I still have the box my first pick. On the farm the hired man taught me car mechanics on a '51 Ford. Pursuing my love of bikes in the 60's I worked in a Honda Shop while in college. I was then a motorcycle 'wrench'. My favorite bike, a 49 Indian Chief. My love of two wheels later turn to bikes, as in then 10 speeds, now 21 speed carbon rockets. I became a bike mechanic, gears and all. When a friend gave me two broken Antique mechanical spring driven clocks, when looking inside, they were all gears Soon I was fixing clocks and then selling And when as a clock picker looking for clocks, invariably there was always other old stuff around more often then not, some cast iron lever seals. I would buy the lot. I liked the seals, especially the noble and regal lion head seals and the assorted more rare dolphin and sea monster lever seals. With some luck and diligence my mélange was now a collection. The collection now has a few of only "one specimen known" as well as few of 2 to 3 known to date, a few of ten or less known. These later groups due to scarcity are "Museum Quality" plus.
I am the son of Holocaust Survivors. My father was one of the few workmen survivors of Auschwitz. My Mother was also in a forced labor camp. My mother managed to save her war time documents. Most obvious on those papers was the seal! The swastikas, they jumped off the page when I saw these papers as a child. A seal was a very powerful symbol early in my childhood. My hero Raul Wallenberg in saving one hundred thousand people from the burning ovens of Wartime Europe, relied on seals, the correct seals on paperwork! The seal, powerful beyond words. A significant California government seal from my current collection was donated to the Japanese American Museum at the Tule Lake California WW2 Interment center. This official California State Level Department Seal invariably stamped documents to remove Japanese Americans to interment camps. And this donation was especially to honor the heroic WW2 Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese diplomat who disobeyed his government's orders and issued visas that allowed 6,000 to escape from Nazi-occupied territories via Japan.
I keep a rotating display of seals in my office from the main collection. And the work is not complete as measuring, weighing, comparing, and gathering historical support documentation attaches to each seal.
Happy Seal Hunting
I am the son of Holocaust Survivors. My father was one of the few workmen survivors of Auschwitz. My Mother was also in a forced labor camp. My mother managed to save her war time documents. Most obvious on those papers was the seal! The swastikas, they jumped off the page when I saw these papers as a child. A seal was a very powerful symbol early in my childhood. My hero Raul Wallenberg in saving one hundred thousand people from the burning ovens of Wartime Europe, relied on seals, the correct seals on paperwork! The seal, powerful beyond words. A significant California government seal from my current collection was donated to the Japanese American Museum at the Tule Lake California WW2 Interment center. This official California State Level Department Seal invariably stamped documents to remove Japanese Americans to interment camps. And this donation was especially to honor the heroic WW2 Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese diplomat who disobeyed his government's orders and issued visas that allowed 6,000 to escape from Nazi-occupied territories via Japan.
I keep a rotating display of seals in my office from the main collection. And the work is not complete as measuring, weighing, comparing, and gathering historical support documentation attaches to each seal.
Happy Seal Hunting