A double-sided circular red wax seal impression of the Great Seal Deputed for the Colony of Virginia during the reign of George III. Within a circular ebonised wooden frame

The obverse shows the royal arms for George III with supporters; the reverse shows George III robed and standing before an imagined kneeling, bare-chested man who wears a feather headdress and presents him with a plant. The motto below reads 'EN DAT VIRGINIA QUARTUM' (Virginia gives a fourth [dominion to Britain])

Great Seals Deputed were used in British colonies to authenticate local laws, grants of land and writs in the king's name. The silver seal matrix, double-sided like those for New York, Georgia and North and South Carolina, would be pressed through paper onto each side of a single disc of wax. The resulting impression was affixed to the bottom of the legal document by cord or a parchment strip.

This seal was designed by His Majesty's Engraver of Seals, Christopher Seaton, in 1767. The composition follows seals produced as early as 1690, for the colony of New York: a standing British ruler is attended by a kneeling subject dressed conspicuously in local costume and offering resources which hint at the untapped wealth of the colonies. Depicting indigenous populations semi-clothed was visual trope used to justify their need for 'civilisation' by Europeans.

The silver seal was dispatched by ship with others newly prepared for the North American and West Indian colonies in the spring of 1767, and likely arrived in the Americas that summer.