Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.14055

    Seal designs

    Date
    1825
    Creator
    Gideon Algernon Mantell (1790 - 1852, British) , Geologist
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (print): 328mm
    width (print): 204mm
    Subject
    Description
    Two rough designs for a seal or coat of arms for the Geological Society of London. The works refer to the geological forces of the Earth, with fossil details: apparently a plesiosaur skull and nautilus (or ammonite?) remains.

    The drawings appear in a letter from Gideon Mantell to William Buckland, 16 June 1825. In the accompanying descriptive text, Mantell wrote: ‘The Gods of Fire & Water supporting a Shield, bearing rocks, torrents, volcanoes & organic remains, appeared to me not inappropriate…perhaps a shield with organic remains supported by a palaeotherium, and Irish Elk, with the Plesiosaurus for a crest…’

    Gideon Algernon Mantell (1790–1852), British geologist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1825.
    Associated place
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