Tornographer (Engraver of Seals by Steam Machinery)

[cheshiremog]

I hope it goes really well for you
Mog

[Nickm]

I have now seen the book at the V&A. It gives a paragraph about Mr Martins new process "Tornography". It then gives a 2 page price list and a page of 15 red wax seals made by seals engraced by the new process.

My only idea for finding out more is to check for Patents for the new process of Tornography at the British Library. I did this for a brother (and his sons) of Thomas Martin, and found several patents for horse hair clippers.

My feeling is that this new process came too lateto make him a fortune(!) as the article talks about the Post Office not liking thick wax seals on letters, so I suspect that they started to become less used soon after he invented it. Not sure when envelopes with glue came into use?

[cheshiremog]

Dear Nick
My!- This sounds like complex work from a bygone age.
Perhaps a new, more specific post might help ?
This is why  I wish 'WDYTYA' would focus on ordinary people as well as celebrities - Would make a good programme
mog

[artiechappie]

Hello Nick!!

Just came across your post today as I was doing some research on a display which I have had for some time containing 89 seal examples which was probably used for the International Exhibition of 1862

The central seal is quite large and is for the International Exhibition, London 1862 but on either side there are 2 seals which refer to Thomas Martin - Tornographer of Newton Abbot, Devon who has probably made this display and seals.

The seals are of varying sizes and shapes from about 1cm and up to about 6-7 cm and the detail on some of these is quite intricate.

I have tried to attach a picture here for you as this may be of interest to you without any luck but I would be happy to send this to you via email.

I woud be very interested to see if you have any information related to this item.

Kind regards,

Allen Thompson

[cheshiremog]

Dear Allen

What a fabulous find I would love to see the photo.

Your picture did not attach.
When you are replying to a post you will see below the white box in blue text 'Attach a photograph or image'  Click on the blue text and then click on Browse to choose your image.  You may need to size your image down a bit as if it is too large it will be rejected.  I think the limit is about 1000 pixels wide?

 I will send a private message to Nick to make sure he has seen your post.

And welcome to rootschat

mog

[artiechappie]

Hello Mog,

Thanks for your post.

I did try to attach 2 photos and downsized them according to the spec but I kept getting "page not found" error so had to give up. I thought perhaps I ws unable to attach since I had only just signed up which I did so that I could reply to Nick's post.

Is is quite a coincidence and I can only guess at its value. I worked for Rubber Stamp Manufacturer. who also made company seals, for some years. These had been in existence since the 1860's so, again, I can only guess that this display had been passed to the owner of the company after the London Exhibition of 1862. It was about to be thrown out when the company closed about 10 years ago.


Allen

[cheshiremog]

Hi Allen
I know that you can not send or receive a PM (private message) until you have 5 posts - maybe it is the same with images - maybe we should keep chatting for a while to get you up to 5 ??

How very fortunate that you rescued those seals - this happens so often - big clear out and things just get destroyed.

mog

[artiechappie]

Thanks Mog,

I'll give it another try this evening when I get home from work.

The quality and detail of these things is amazing. As I said in my earlier post, the company I worked for also made wax seal "stamps" - not many mind you but there was the odd one. These were engraved by a parallel gravograph in order to get the detail right so, bearing in mind the available technology in the 1860's, I'm amazed that the were able to manage to get such detail.

I was looking at the catalogue for the 1851 exhibition and Thomas Martin was advertised there too and he claimed that he had engraved The Lord's Prayer on a seal of 1/2" in diameter.

We can only do that with laser engravers today!!

Allen

[cheshiremog]

Hi Allen

Keep me posted.

What amazing stuff - Mr Martin must have been a genius in the tornography world.  Its great that you also worked in the industry and will have some knowledge of the processes.
I really hope Nickm gets in touch.  I have sent him a PM to ask him to check out this link.

Mog