Cloth Seal, Company, 1707 - 1858, United East India
Cloth Seal, East India Company Seal, Image by StuE, Found by Nasher.
Found in North Hertfordshire / Cambridgeshire area, 24mm, 10.7g.
(P?)B scratched // United East India Company privy mark
The company's mark consists of a 4 in the cleft of a heart with an E in the right section, a V above a C in the middle section and an I in the left section. The reverse has scratches on that at first could be taken for RB but the down strokes are splits in the seal and the mark is more likely to be the number 23.
See Nos.294 & 4 Fig.38, Geoff Egan, Lead Cloth Seals and Related Items in the British Museum:-
"The Company was established under this name in 1708, and traded not only with India, but also with China and much of the rest of Asia, including the areas now comprising Malaysia and Indonesia. ... [The] figures probably refer to length/weight, or maybe consignment numbers."
Another example can be seen in the National Maritime Museum, Object ID ZBA0441., "The design on the reverse shows a St George cross with the English shield of arms (the three lions of England diagonally impaled with the three fleurs de lys of France) in the upper left quadrant. On the front, which has residual traces of original gilding that probably covered the whole, the letters VEIC are set within a heart shape with the number 4 above. These seals were authenticating merchants marks on bolts or bales of cloth, being folded and clamped round a visible outer edge. The hinge here is at the bottom, two 'spikes' at top back having been pushed through the ring at top front and bent over to each side. This sandwich so formed here encloses a preserved fragment of cloth, probably wool though it has not been analysed, protected from the decay which the rest of the consignment suffered after the ship it was in sank. The obverse design is shown among those in No. 10 of a series of reference prints issued by Laurie and Whittle, 'Invoice marks for West India and American Merchants etc' published on 1 May 1801 (PAH7501). This print,however, has a X within the heart as a letter separator rather than the 'reversed brackets' used here, and a U rather than a sculptural V for 'United', so may be a later version. These seals were made by Pennington, Pendleton and others, this one being recovered from the wreck site of an unidentified merchantman circa 1780-1815 in the South Edinburgh Channel, Thames Estuary, in 1975. Other items in the Museum from the same wreck include: REL0628-0689, REL0769-0771, ZBA0439-0445. Date made circa 1780-1800."
See also p.209 - 211, Elton, S., Cloth Seals, An Illustrated Reference Guide to the Identification of Lead Seals Attached to Cloth: from the British Perspective, which includes MOL Z4092 showing the ridged cross with arms of England in first quarter that is often shown on one side of these seals.
