Cloth Seal, Clothier's Seal, Exeter, Andrew Raillard & Bernard Cosserat

Cloth Seal, Clothier's Seal, Exeter, Andrew Raillard & Bernard Cosserat, Image & Found by Steen Agersø.
Found in Denmark, Ærøskøbing on the island of Ærø, 22mm (43mm long).

Cloth weave? imprint // 21 (line beneath) // privy mark A R B C in quadrants of heart // part of the same privy mark

This is one of the very rare cloth seals whose privy mark can be matched to a clothier. Thanks to the work of Peter Maunder it has been linked to Andrew Raillard and Bernard Cosserat, an Exeter clothier partnership operating in the late 1690’s, See p.255, Elton, Cloth Seals, An Illustrated Reference Guide to the Identification of Lead Seals Attached to Cloth: from the British Perspective, Archaeopress, 2017.

The first recorded example of this seal was located by Mike Patrick in Hittinger, Dieter: Auswertung der Tuchplombenfunde der Teerhofgrabung Bremer Archäologische Blätter, Neue Folge 7, 2005-2008, pp.111-144 Copyright 2008 Landesarchäologie Bremen, ISSN 0068-0907 see - Tuchplomben vom Bremer Teerhof, p.138.

Mike also supplied the following extracts from a Codicil to the Will of James Raillard of Exeter, Merchant, 1692, "And my Will meaneing and desire is and soe hereby declared That my brother Andrew Raillard of Basill Merchant shall bee sent to after my decease to come with all convenient speed into England And my desire is that hee would settle and establish himselfe at Exon aforesaid in the same Trade Commerce and Merchandise in which I am Ingaged and that my said Brother doe joyne in partnership with my servant Bernard Cosserat and that they shall joyntly continue maintaine and carry on the Correspondence businesse and Merchandize in such manner as I have done in my lifetime"
"I doe hereby give devise and bequeath unto my said Faithfull and Trusty servant Bernard Cosserat in consideration of the long and faithfull service hee hath performed dureing the time hee hath lived with mee ......."
"And my Will meaneing and desire is that the said Trade and Commerce shall be managed and carryed on by the said Andrew Raillard and Bernard Cosserat in Copartnership and in their two Names joyntly both in England and beyond the seas And I doe hereby constitute and appoynt my said Brother Andrew Raillard and the said Bernard Cosserat joynt and only Executors of this my now last Will and Testament"
signed by James Raillard, 10 September 1692 [Probate 3 December 1692].