Cloth Seal, Clothier's Seal, Tiverton, Nathaniel Cleaveland

Cloth Seal, Clothier's Seal, Tiverton, Nathaniel Cleaveland, Image & Held by Michel Royer.
Purchased from the Netherlands, ?mm.

Flower / 2.1 1/2 / flower // missing but stamped on large rivet stub - two radiating stars N C to sides

A Tiverton serge seal for Nathaniel Cleaveland who traded from 1653 to 1715.

See Evans Type 1.3.4.* This seal is also recorded as No.14 Fig.2 p.396, Maunder, P., Tiverton Cloth: The Story of the Town's Woollen Trade 1475 - 1815.

*A helpful classification system for these seals, devised by Jane Evans, can be found as an appendix to Peter Maunder’s comprehensive history of the Tiverton cloth trade.

This and other Tiverton seals were taken from Michel Royer's Euro-Plombs. The original image appears to be a combined shot of both sides with the crushed outer loop of the rove disc still attached to the connecting strip.

The fullest collection of Tiverton cloth seals (about thirty) is on permanent display in Tiverton Museum.