Cloth Seal, Charles II, Alnage, Dozens, Stuart Arms

Cloth Seal, Alnage, Dozens, Stuart Arms, Image & Found by Peter Eggers.
Found on De Beemster, early 17th C polder next to the village of De Rijp, Netherlands, 28 x 11mm, 6.7g.

20 1/4 scratched // DOZEN / 76 // Stuart arms of Britain // blank

Complete four part alnage seal bearing DOZEN (N retrograde), dated (16)76, with the Stuart Arms and nothing decipherable on the the rove disc.

J.E.Pilgrim, The Rise of the 'New Draperies' in Essex, University of Birmingham Historical Journal Vol. VII, No. 1 1959, "[In] Needham Market some light, cheap cloths known as 'dozens', which were very similar to kersies, were made." For this he references 'Star Chamber Proc. 118, file 10: Exch. K.R. Port Books. bdle. 602, no. 8.' Although this particular reference Pilgrim was discussing cloth manufacture nearly a century before the date on this seal, when the first Flemish weavers arrived to replace much of the native cloth with their bays and says, the cloth remained popular for many generations.