Sometimes wax seals don't even survive inside the envelope

This letter made a rattling sound when I took it out of my mailbox. It sounded like it was filled with little sprinkles, or large confetti. So I used caution when I opened it (note: I LOATHE loose glitter that goes all over everywhere! My cats try to eat it and that's really bad for them), and discovered that the wax seal inside the envelope had crumbled.



In case you can't tell, in these photos I'm holding open the envelope after just opening it. I wanted to photograph the little wax bits before I dumped them down the trash. I guess this seal was of the more brittle sort of wax. I'm sure it was very pretty there on the ribbon... but sadly ironic that a seal put inside the envelope, to keep it safe during mailing, still didn't make it intact.

Wax seals don't make it, sometimes

I don't use sealing wax myself, but a lot of my correspondents and fellow letter-writers do. I've posted many times about beautiful wax seals I've received, but sometimes they don't make it through the mail. I gather there are more modern, supple kinds that are made to be flexible in our modern mail sorting machines; sometimes the old-school stuff is fine and sometimes it isn't.



This time it didn't survive very well... just an FYI for what it can look like when it gets smooshed by the sorting machines.