Rights Holder: The Portable Antiquities Scheme
CC License:
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Unique ID: IOW-A34685
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation
An incomplete post-Medieval lead alloy two-disc cloth seal (c. 1500-c. 1650).
The seal is formed by two circular discs, one with a hole in the centre and the other with a stud protruding. These discs are joined by an integral connecting strip which is folded in half so the discs over-lay each other, and the stud protrudes through the hole. The seal is then stamped on the discs creating a design on both faces. One design is a stylised pine cone, heraldic badge of the city of Augsburg, with leaves protruding at the base and a six-pointed star at either side. This surface has a beaded border. The partial design on the stud consists of a curvilinear motif, a six-pointed star and a quatrefoil. The curvilinear motif may be part of a bishop's crozier.
These seals are from linen warp, cotton weft fabrics that were known in England as 'Ousbrow or Augusta fustians' in the sixteenth-/early seventeenth-century.
This cloth seal has a buff patina and only a stub of the connecting strip survives.
Diameter: 18.4mm; thickness: 3.5mm. Weight: 4.20g.
The pinecone is sometimes interpreted as a teasel (Dipsacus fullonum) because of the connection to the cloth trade, but the history of the arms of Augsburg shows that before 1260 a tree-of-life was the central feature, after which it became a bunch of grapes in a canting reference to a variety of grapes (Augster), and finally in the late 15th century the grapes were replaced with a cone from the Swiss stone pine (Pinus cembra).
Current location of find: Finder
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: POST MEDIEVAL
Subperiod from: Early
Period from: POST MEDIEVAL
Subperiod to: Early
Period to: POST MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 1500
Date to: Circa AD 1650
Quantity: 1
Thickness: 3.5 mm
Weight: 4.2 g
Diameter: 18.4 mm
Date(s) of discovery: Sunday 15th May 2016 - Sunday 15th May 2016
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Other reference: IOW2016-1-188
Grid reference source: GPS (from the finder)
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 1 metre square.
No references cited so far.