Rights Holder: Museum of London
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Unique ID: LON-6804CC
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation
A post medieval incomplete lead alloy Colchester cloth seal from the Dutch immigrant community dating AD1571-1728. One disc from this cloth seal survives with part of the connecting strip still present. One the reverse of the dish there are two flattened rivets. The front of the disc has been stamped with the arms of Colchester: a cross (cross raguly) with a larger coronet at the bottom and two smaller coronets above the arms of the cross within a square topped shield with scroll work around the edge all within a circular linear border.
Dimensions: Diameter: 37.10mm; weight: 16.59g
Egan (1994: 29) writes "Dutch immigrant community seals. The Dutch, who came as religious refugees to Colchester in 1565 and 1570, were among the most successful manufacturers of the new draperies in England in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The high quality of their bays and says, maintained by stringent and rigorously observed searching procedures, led rival textile producers to counterfeit their community's special seals in the seventeenth century, in order to take advantage of their products' reputation. The immigrants' seals include the word 'Dutch' in the legend, in a variety of spellings. The date 1571 on many of the stamps appears to refer to the year in which their manufacture was established on a formal footing (though no record of this has been traced). The same date was used on seals right up to 1728, when the Dutch weavers ceased to exist as a separate organisation." Reference: Egan, G. 1994. Lead cloth seals and related items in the British Museum. Occasional Paper 93. The British Museum Press; London.
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: POST MEDIEVAL
Period from: POST MEDIEVAL
Period to: POST MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 1571
Date to: Circa AD 1728
Quantity: 1
Weight: 16.59 g
Diameter: 37.1 mm
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4 Figure: TQ3280
Four figure Latitude: 51.5035277
Four figure longitude: -0.09955492
1:25K map: TQ3280
1:10K map: TQ38SW
Grid reference source: Generated from computer mapping software
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 1 metre square.
Author | Publication Year | Title | Publication Place | Publisher | Pages | Reference | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Egan, G. | 1994 | Lead cloth seals and related items in the British Museum | London | Department of Medieval and Later Antiquities, British Museum |