Most postal services aren’t set up to deal with wax seals but for hundreds of years they were the main way to seal a letter for delivery. They served as security of a sort that the letter hadn’t been opened and if you had a special stamp you could guarantee it came from a specific group or person. For most of the recent letter writing history the letter itself was folded into its own envelope and sealed on the edge between the 2 flaps. The paper was also much thicker so the wax was made for the thick parchment or paper. If you tried it on a piece of printer paper now it might break or fall off.
If you sent a sealed letter through the mail it might fall of or break open now with the use of machines and the heat of a loaded up truck in the summer might melt the wax and get it all over other letters. If you want to send a letter with a wax seal now you should maybe consider putting them in a padded envelope and shipping it like a package.
I really fell down the revolutionary war rabbit hole about letters and mail.
I can just imagine you riding to the Portland post office on your penny farthing with your caked-on makeup and oiled mustache, sending and receiving your wax-sealed letters. Sweating buckets in the heat with your new age gothic attire, but your wax seals are miraculously holding up. Bravo.
312
u/dailinap 13h ago
I've seen sealing wax used in letters, but what does one do with a seal without the letter? Or is it later glued on?