GOETZ: 1900-05 Business "Petschaft"

cacheman

I recently acquired this piece for my collection from the Moeller auction 41. This is a one-of-a-kind personal business tool that Goetz created and used to seal his personal correspondence with.

Beautiful and delicate this piece measures 89mm tall. The seal surface is 21mm wide. As mentioned, the handle is made from silver and the seal is made from brass.

I have spent some time trying to remove candle wax from the engraved recesses of the seal surface. Some idiot evidently tried to make a stamp using the wrong wax. I have yet to attempt making an actual seal but will do so in the near future. For the time being, I have horizontally flipped and then made a negative of the seal surface (blue image) to give you an idea of what a finished stamp would look like.

enjoy....

Click for Hi-res of seal surface

DorkGirl

It's wonderful!

By any chance did you try using a paper towel and a hot iron on the wax? It works like a charm on a rug.

coinpictures

Now THAT is a cool item. Do you have any examples of his correspondence using the seal?

cacheman

"By any chance did you try using a paper towel and a hot iron on the wax? It works like a charm on a rug."

No, I alternated soaking it in gasolene to dissolve the paraffin and dipping it in boiling water....finally got most of it.


"Do you have any examples of his correspondence using the seal?"

Not as yet but that doesn't mean they don't exist. I was offered several boxes of his business correspondance but couldn't justify the $3500 asking price for what could possibly be the dregs of his cleaned out desk drawer. Something should turn up sooner or later I'd think. I know he didn't make this just to look at it....

cacheman

BTW, Anyone got any input into the ancient coin he uses in the design? I'm not knowledgable about ancients but with the little I know the coin appears to be an Attica Tetradrachmon. Anyone else got any ideas?

Garneteye

Impressive, is the handle flat or perhaps triangluar(sp)?

cacheman

The handle has four sides, two with the flower arrangement you see here and two with another slightly different design.

Udo

Beautiful seal and petschaft Why do some jerks always try to mishandle historic items

ibzman350

Interesting find..............I like...





Herb

theboz11

Steve27

Super item!

1jester

Nice find!!

Refrema

What a wonderfull "non Coin" addition to your collection.

Bob

Stork

That is totally cool!

cacheman

I just received an interesting explanation of the design elements as seen through the eyes of a fellow Goetz collector...Take a read here.

I believe that the woman is placing a standard candle-cap upon a lit candle thereby extinguishing it, as the wafting smoke kind of lets you know. Now that the letter is written, folded, and sealed the correspondence is finshed, ended, extinguished - the illuminating candle can now be put out - by the nubian maiden. I think that dirty old Karl is letting his own dingy laundry show in this image. With their East African colonies I'll bet this was the fantasy of many a middle-class German man of the Kaiserreich period, as it was for their French, Dutch & English contemporaries.

You can bet he wasn't using this seal when writing to the Bishop von Stein.