Original wax seal of approval from the reign of Edward VII, issued under King George V.
This seal was issued in the name of King George V to offer full power to the diplomat Sir Francis Elliot (1851-1940), in his negotiations with Greece. It was issued at the court of St James on the 1st of September 1910, only a few months after the death of King Edward VII (May 6th 1910), making it one of the earlist issuances of the great seal from the reign of George V. This is evidenced by the fact that the seal is still that of Edward VII, meaning that there had not yet been time to design and issue a new seal for the new monarch.
The attached parchment highlights the 'special trust and confidence in the wisdom, loyalty, diligence and circumspection of our trusty and well beloved Sir Francis Edmund Hugh Elliot G.C V.O K.C M.G., Our Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary' and states that he 'may be vested with similar power and authority on the part of Our Good Brother and Dear Uncle the King of The Hellenes and Treaty, Convention or Agreement Between Us ... and to sign for us in our name'.
The seal is housed in its original bronze skippet, which is in turn housed in its original box. The ministerial credentials are still attached via decorative rope with tassles.
Along with the seal, this lot also includes some personal artifacts previously belonging to Elliot. These include; a George VI Coronation medal, along with an invitation to the 1937 coronation and two additional medals, 1896 32mm bronze medal commemorating the death of Charilaos Trikoupis and another silvered bronze medal featuring the Greek owl.
Wax seals featuring Edward VII are considerably scarcer than those of monarchs such as Queen Victoria, due to the fact that his reign was relatively short. A historically important artefact of museum quality.
Sir Francis Edmund Hugh Elliot GCMG GCVO (24 March 1851 – 20 January 1940) was a British diplomat who was envoy to Greece for 14 years. Elliot went to Eton and then on to Balliol College, Oxford where he read Classics and rowed in the Balliol eight which went Head of the river. He also rowed in an Oxford-Etonian eight which won the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley in 1871.
Elliot joined the Diplomatic Service and was appointed Attache at Constantinople in 1874. He served as 3rd Secretary at Vienna and 2nd Secretary at Rio de Janeiro, Stockholm, Lisbon, Cairo and Paris before being appointed Secretary of Legation at Athens in 1890. He moved to Sofia as Agent and Consul-General in 1895. In 1903 he returned to Athens as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.
On the outbreak of World War I Elliot tried to persuade King Constantine to join the Allies, but he insisted on neutrality although the Prime Minister, Eleftherios Venizelos, was in favour of joining the Allies. Events in the Balkans forced the Allies to land troops at Salonika (Thessaloniki) with Venizelos' permission, and in August 1916, followers of Venizelos set up a provisional state in northern Greece with Allied support with the aim of reclaiming the lost regions in Macedonia, effectively splitting Greece into two entities. After intense diplomatic negotiations and an armed confrontation in Athens between Allied and royalist forces (an incident known as Neomvriana) the king abdicated and left Greece in June 1917, and Elliot left at the same time "on leave", but he was replaced shortly afterwards by Lord Granville who had already been accredited to Venizelos' provisional government at Salonika.
Elliot then served as Deputy Controller of the Foreign Trade Department at the Foreign Office until he retired in 1919. Francis Elliot was appointed CMG in January 1904, knighted KCMG in June of the same year and promoted to GCMG in the King's Birthday Honours of 1917. He was given the additional knighthood of GCVO on the occasion of a state visit to England by George I of Greece in 1905. He died 20 January 1940 (aged 88).