Gertrud Seidmann, FSA, FRSA (16 September 1919 – 15 February 2013) was an Austrian-British linguist and jewellery historian, specialising in engraved gems.

Her first career was as a linguist, teaching German and applied linguistics at Battersea County School, the University of Oxford, and the University of Southampton: she was awarded the Goethe Medal in 1968. She formally retired in 1979 and dedicated herself to researching jewellery and engraved gems, becoming a research associate of the Institute of Archaeology and of Oxford's Beazley Archive.^[1][2][3][4]

In 2004, Seidmann matriculated into Wolfson College, Oxford to study for a Master of Letters (MLitt) research degree. She thereby became the University of Oxford's oldest ever student. She went on to undertake research towards a doctorate in the School of Archaeology. In 2011, due to ill health and at the age of 91, she ended her studies and was awarded a Certificate of Graduate Attainment by the university.^[2][3]

Honours

In 1985, Seidmann was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).^[1] She was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA) in 1986.^[1]

In 1999, a Festschrift was published in her honour: it was titled Classicism to Neo-classicism: Essays dedicated to Gertrud Seidmann, and was edited by Martin Henig and Dimitris Plantzos.^[5]

Selected works

• "Nathaniel Marchant, Gem-engraver, 1739-1816". The Volume of the Walpole Society. 53: 1–105. 1987.
• Seidmann, Gertrud (1997). "Person seals in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century England and their antecedents". In Collon, Dominique (ed.). 7000 years of seals. London: British Museum Press. ISBN 9780714111438.