Antique Wooden Mallet Stamp Malacoota Australia - M. Johnston 1840\'s For Sale

This large seal stamp is made of wood. It measures 6 inches long and 1-3/4 inch diameter at the large end.  It appears to have originally had a brass or steel ring on one end to keep hammer blows from splitting the wood.  The brass piece has been lost to time.  They often fall off and are lost as the wood shrinks over a long period of time and the ring becomes loose.  The body was lathe turned and the seal was carved by hand.  At the top of the seal is the town of origin witch is Malacoota Australia.  The bottom part is the name of the merchant who was marking his goods, M. Johnston.  There is a family crest or notable symbol carved in the center of the seal.  The seal end is stained with red ink.  It could have been used to mark cloth bags containing goods or could have marked goods directly, I am not sure of the exact purpose.

Malacoota had a thriving commercial fishing and whaling industry starting in the 1830\'s and continuing on until the 1880\'s.  I think this is from the early part of that time period.  I could only find one refrence to the name m. Johnston in malacoota in that time period.  It stated that an M. Johnston was found on an early shipping log.  I never was able to view the document but it was likely the owner of this seal.

How it ended up in Missouri is another mystery.