The museum has several seals in its collection, and their analysis allows the identification of the range of subjects represented in them, demonstrating the way in which certain motifs are repeated, and speak of the molds and the copies.
The seal that we see here seems to be a copy of one of the four seals of the 1517 set. Among this set of seals is a rectangular convex seal which, in turn, is very similar to some of the seals that Jorge Enciso recorded (pp. ix and pp. 81 and 151) as originating from Mexico City and from the State of Mexico. Both seals bear two elements that intermingle to form a visual metaphor. The dominant symbol of the design of the seal is that which characterizes the god Macuilxóchitl, who is represented by two interlocking flower stems; it is surrounded by forms that constitute butterflies, and is combined with the outlined face of a serpent of fire seen from the side.
The god Macuilxochitl, "5 flower" is the masculine deity of flowers, patron of the patolli players and protector of the lords, and this image formed in a seal is a sign of his importance among the nahuas on the eve of the Conquest, when they practiced the game of patolli. Diego Duran tells us that when they threw the beans on the figure of a blade that was painted on the mat of the game of patolli, they exhorted him; and before they began to play the players invoked him and offered him incense and food.
Most of the seals that have been found were made of clay, ductile and malleable material, located in deposits discovered by potters that are characterized by obtaining plasticity when mixed with water, and are composed of other materials such as sand or organic material to give them greater strength and cohesion when working and modeling. The clay becomes firm upon drying, and when subjected to the high temperatures of the fire it becomes a permanently rigid material.
The seal we see here was made by a potter who used a mold, and it is from a late period. The first seals, in other words the earliest, were modeled by hand and it was not until the Classic period that the manufacture of molded seals began. In this case, the clay was poured and pressed inside the molds, which were also made of fired clay.
Archaeologists propose that this technology probably arose in the Teotihuacan city, since it is there where its early use, mostly in the form of molds, has been detected and its presence in the two large cities: Teotihuacán, in the state of Mexico, and Monte Albán, in Oaxaca, which dominated the Mesoamerican region in the Classic period and in several sites of the Gulf of Mexico region as well as in the Mayan region, is a reflection of the great demand that this object had which rose before the possibility of producing it in series and in great numbers. The use of a mold to produce seals continued during the Post-Classic and throughout the 16th century.
Seals are objects that could be produced in series once they were manufactured from molds. The same mold can produce an infinite number of pieces and each time it is used and the piece is removed from the mold, it suffers wear. The relief begins to lose its sharpness and the edges are chipped while the clay of the mold is worn out from use; therefore, each piece that is made and manufactured with the mold becomes different and increasingly blurred.
This is evident in the seal we see here; The lines and traces of the design are worn, and this will show in the impression that the seal will leave when using it, a fuzzy shape that, like its meaning, has faded.
