Cloth Seal, Kent, Alnage, Crowned Rose, CB
Cloth Seal, Kent, Alnage, Crowned Rose, CB, Image & Held my James Crombie.
Bought in England, 21mm.
Crowned double rose (C*) B to sides, S + V + PAO + VEAL + I + CO + KENTC(?) around (Lombardic) // 4-way split rivet stub
*"The list of complete initials of suspected deputy alnagers from these seals is: B(L or D), CB, EH, FH, GH, (M?)T, B(?V) and from this seal TS and from BSG.CS.00989, BT." [p.87, Elton, S., Cloth Seals, An Illustrated Reference Guide to the Identification of Lead Seals Attached to Cloth: from the British Perspective]. Hence the probability of the C in the CB suggested for this seal.
An early 16th century alnage seal for Kent with unusual four-way split rivet stub, see BSG.CS.00987 for a more common 2-way split rivet stub.
See Egan. G., 1987, Provenanced Leaden Cloth Seals by Geoffrey Egan, Sub-Department of Medieval Archaeology, University College, University of London, submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 1987, p.137, "A number of seals with a crown over a double rose and Lombardic-letter legends have been recorded: crown over double rose, letter to each side, S:PAO'VEAL:I:CO:KENT(A) around (Lombardic letters, the last letter in the legend varies from stamp to stamp) //-"
See also Geoff Egan, Lead Cloth Seals and Related Items in the British Museum Occasional Paper 93, No.47, Fig.16 and Fig.17 for a seal of the same type attached to the original cloth.
There is an interesting similarity between this design and coins of Henry VIII for 1526-47: See Egan, 1991, Alnage Seals & The National Coinage, "The next instance of close correspondence occurs in the reign of Henry VIII. A series of seals for Kent, with a crowned rose and an initial to each side (at least seven sets of initials have been recorded) may be closely compared with the gold halfcrowns of the double rose issued from 1526 onwards.
The rose occupies slightly more of the centre of the design for the coins than it does for that on the seals. An Exchequer Roll of 1517 records an order for the engraving of twenty-two dies of sufficiently hard metal (de duro et competenti metallo) and with marks and differentiations (cum signis ac differenciis) for sealing cloths in the county of Kent, to be delivered to Sir William Stafford, the custodian of the mint at the Tower of London. From the slight evidence so far traced, this seems to be a high number of dies for a single county, given that the known early sixteenth century Kent seals of this series are, in contrast to many contemporary issues, struck only on one side, and that there appears to be no reason to believe that Kent's production of cloth was on an exceptionally large scale at this time. The different initials on the seals could be described as 'differentiations'. A connection between the designs seems clear enough, but more work is needed on the documentary evidence before it can be established whether the 1517 order relates to these crowned-rose seals or to some other variety that has yet to be recognised. (These are the only early sixteenth century seals so far known from Kent.) Were a connection to be established, the design for the seals would anticipate its adoption for coins by almost a decade."
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