Seal Ring

Flowing script cut backward into a brown stone, ready to press into wax.

This seal ring dates to the 20th century and is made of gold and carnelian. Seal rings engraved with a name or phrase were widely used across the Islamic world to sign documents, the reversed inscription pressed into wax or ink. An oval stone in deep brown, darkening toward one end, is set in a smooth gold bezel. Its surface is engraved with Arabic script, the letters looping across the face. The band is heavy and hand-shaped, flattened at the shoulders.

A signature that never needed a pen.