Rights Holder: The Portable Antiquities Scheme
CC License:
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Unique ID: SOM-79688E
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation
A Medieval or Post-Medieval two- or four-disc lead cloth seal with a privy or merchants mark. The object consists of two disc fragments joined back to back. The fragment at the front is the larger one and is irregular in shape. It retains part of a stamped design but none of it's original edge, having breaks and wear on all sides. The design has a long vertical with a horizontal cross bar at the top, the rest of the top is lost to the breaks. At the base the vertical splits into two conjoined Xs . Half way down the vertical appears to be two short horizontals meeting shorter verticals, one appears to be the letter F to the right but the rest is obscure. The smaller fragment at the rear of the object is part of the edge of one the other discs and displays no stamped design.Length: 17.9mm. Width: 14.0mm. Thickness: 3.2. Weight: 2.58g
This was probably a cloth seal used by a weaver, dyer or searcher. The use of a privy or merchants mark suggests a broad late 16th to 18th century date. A number of comparable seals are published by Egan (1994: 181-183), no exact parallels are found, but similar designs featuring connected letters and numbers with adjoining crosses are common. See SOM-7680C6 and SOM-EE33C3 on this database and Elton (2017:248-259).
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: POST MEDIEVAL
Period from: MEDIEVAL
Period to: POST MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 1550
Date to: Circa AD 1800
Quantity: 1
Length: 17.9 mm
Width: 14 mm
Thickness: 3.2 mm
Weight: 2.58 g
Date(s) of discovery: Thursday 1st December 2016 - Saturday 31st December 2016
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Other reference: SCC receipt: 019811
Grid reference source: From finder
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 100 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 | |||
Elton, S. F. | 2017 | Cloth Seals: An Illustrated reference guide to the identification of lead seals attached to cloth | Oxford | Archaeopress Archaeology |