Rights Holder: Royal Institution of Cornwall
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Unique ID: CORN-8E5F77
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation
Cast Russian lead cloth seal with the letters:
*S P / C T. R H / *177 on one face and
*A C* / KAPONI / II I O O* on the other face
John Sullivan writes:
DATED SIDE: 1. SP: probably stands for St Petersburg and occurs on 16 other seals in my records, all but one from Scotland. The single other one with SP is from Mistley not far from Colchester in Essex, even though it is held in Suffolk at Bury St Edmunds. 2. The date of 177? is likely as seals recovered with dates in the 1770s (91) are the more numerous than in the rest of the 18th century, with the exception of the 1790s (which produce 113 examples). 3. CT.RH: a string of letters of the type commonly found on early St Petersburg seals which probably indicate the contents of the bale or bundle to which the seal was attached. The particular string CTRH is found on one other St Petersburg seal from the 1820s, a seal found in Aberdeenshire.
UNDATED SIDE: 1. AC: to an eye trained in Russian this looks very similar to Д S (= D S). However, the exact significance of DS is not at all clear. Usually in this position we find an indication of where the goods in the bundle were inspected and graded before being released for export or possibly what the goods were. DS suggests nothing obvious to me. All I can say is that DS occur only on five other seals , two from Cromarty, one from Fife and one probably from Cheshire and one from Warwickshire. 2. II I 0 0: I interpret this as Cyrillic H 10 (Number 10), the number of the post at which the Quality Control Officer was working. Russian seals so far recovered have post numbers ranging from 1 to 403. 3. The main stumbling block to me declaring it definitely Russian is the name which would normally stand in this position and which we both more or less agree is KAPONI (CAPON-). The N is definitely Latin (N in Russian would be H). If it is a mis-strike when the seal was made it might be I which in Russian represents the English sound I, but this is hardly likely because the resultant name (CAPOI-) is quite unlikely. The use of Roman letters to indicate the surnames of the producer, owner or their agent is not widespread until 1840s.
See LVPL-353705 on the database for a similar example of a lead cloth seal with the initials A C over the numerals II 32, and on the reverse, what might be S P over the date 1785.
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: POST MEDIEVAL
Subperiod from: Late
Period from: POST MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 1770
Date to: Circa AD 1779
Quantity: 1
Length: 24.6 mm
Width: 24 mm
Thickness: 6.7 mm
Weight: 14.48 g
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Primary material: Lead
Manufacture method: Cast
Completeness: Incomplete
4 Figure: SW7538
Four figure Latitude: 50.19916
Four figure longitude: -5.154101
1:25K map: SW7538
1:10K map: SW78SE
Grid reference source: Generated from computer mapping software
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 1 metre square.
No references cited so far.