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In the Conservation Lab: Valentine’s Day Edition

February 14th, 2025

Currently, I am treating a group of parchment leaves that make up a legal document. The text discusses partitions of land in Wickenby and Great Humby, hamlets in Lincolnshire, England. The document is dated September 21, 1716.

Group of parchment documents affixed to one another with fourteen wax seals at the bottom edge.
Partition: Wickenby, Great Humby, September 21, 1716.
Call number MS 240A:783.

The large pieces of animal skin are affixed to one another with sewing and fourteen red wax seals. Each seal was stamped with a heart, pierced by two arrows.

Detail two wax seals imprinted with hearts, on a parchment document
Partition: Wickenby, Great Humby, September 21, 1716.
Call number MS 240A:783.

How appropriate to discover fourteen red hearts on a document on Valentine’s Day, February 14!

Whitney Baker
Head, Conservation Services

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