FRANCIS SANDFORD

These strikingly decorative prints of English seals are from a 17th century work depicting the seals, coats of arms and crests of the Monarchs of Great Britain, from the Norman Conquest to the time of publication in 1677. Sandford was born in 1630 and educated at trinity college, Dublin. He was appointed rouge dragon pursuivant in the college of arms in 1661, and in 1677 he wrote his famous work entitled 'a genealogical history of the kings and queens of England'. In it he describes the discovery in 1674 of bones at the tower, "some men were digging down the stairs which led from the king's lodgings to the chapel in the tower. Suddenly they found the bones of two youngsters in a wooden chest about 10 feet underground. Presuming that these are the bones of the princes, King Charles ii ordered that the bones should be put in a marble urn and placed in the chapel of King Henry VII in Westminster abbey".