Watch List notes:

An original warrant for Royal Seals with designs by Thomas Simon (1618-1665) The Warrant for Seals for Foreign Letters of Charles II, dated 7 April 1664, with the King's signature and private seal affixed; the designs by Thomas Simon for two seals, 2____ ins. [62.7mm.] and 17/8 ins. [47.7mm.], the larger with lion atop a crowned helm above elaborate arms within Garter and Lion and Unicorn supporters, DIEV ET MON DROIT on ribband below, legend around, CAROLVS. II. DEI. GRA. MAG. BRITAN. FRAN. ET. HIB. REX. FIDEI. DEFENS.; the smaller with plainer crowned arms and supporters, similar legend but ending FID DEFEN; inscribed in pencil, pen and brown ink, brown wash, 11 1/4 x 7__ ins. [285.75 x 190.5mm.], has been folded in past, in good order, mounted for display One of only a couple of lots from the original Christie's sale that are still in private hands. The Warrant reads:- Charles R [the King's signature] Our Will and Pleasure is That you forthwith engrave two steele seales for Our Service, to be delivered to Our right trusty and wellbeloved Councellor Sr. Henry Bennet Knt. One of Our Principal Secretaries of State, according to the draught here above expressed, For which this shall be your Warrant, Given at Our Court at Whitehall the 7th day of April, 1664 By his Majt. Command Henry Bennet To Our trusty and wellbeloved Thomas Simonds One of Our Chiefe Gravers. Note: Simon was well known for his Republican views and had been passed over" at the Restoration.é This Warrant is the first to use the expression "Our trusty and wellbeloved Thomas Simonds" and shows, as Derek Allen writes, that "he was not completely out of favour".é There is a proof impression of the larger seal in the Hunterian Museum, which is illustrated by Allen, pl. VI, 7. Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington, KG, PC (1618 - 28 July 1685), statesman. Bennet was knighted in 1657, prior to the Restoration, and on his return to England in 1661 was made Keeper of the Privy Purse, a duty that oversaw "the procuring and management of the royal mistresses".é He was made Secretary of State in October 1662 and represented Callington in Parliament from 1661 till 1665 (in November 1662 he sought the help of Samuel Pepys and others to search for treasure believed hidden in the Tower of London).é In Council he led the opposition to the Earl of Clarendon.é He was later in the 'Cabal' ministry.é He was privy to the secret negotiations for the Treaty of Dover with Louis XIV in 1670 and was created a Knight of the Garter two years later. Provenance: The artist's daughter, Mrs. Hibberd; her daughter, who married Samuel Barker of Fairford, Gloucestershire; their daughter, Esther, who married James Lamb of Hackney (d. 1761, and by descent to Raymond Barker, Bruton, Somerset, by 1938; Christie's Auction, 14 July 1987 (lot 27), "Sold by Order of a Foreign Trust". Literature: George Vertue, Medals, Coins, Great Seals and Other Works of Thomas Simon, London 1753 & 2nd edition, London, 1780, edited by Charles Coombe Derek Allen, Thomas Simon's Sketch-Book, The Walpole Society, vol. XXVII, 1938-9 Derek Allen, Warrants and Sketches of Thomas Simon, The British Numismatic Journal, volume XXIII, 1938-41, p. 446 & pl. III, 4, 5"

Estimate: £8000-12,000