Cloth Seal, French, Nimes Silk / Serge Seal, A.S. Girard et Fils
Cloth Seal, French, Nimes Silk / Serge Seal, A.S. Girard et Fils, Image & Found by Alan Hall.
Found in West Alabama, USA, 11mm.
Crocodile beneath a palm tree, COL(NEM) // A.S / GIRARD / ET FILS
A single disc cloth seal for Nimes silk or serge.
Identified by Philippe Lanez, "French, Nîmes, silk seal. It reads one side COL NEM, crocodile to left chained to a palm tree, above wall or pavement. Other side is A.S. GIRARD ET FILS (A stands for Antoine and S for his son). Established at end of 18th century."
See No.346 Fig.46, Geoff Egan,'Lead cloth seals and related items in the B.M. (B.M.occ.papers 93)', "palm tree and crocodile, COL NE(M) to sides, NIMES below // fleur-de-lis, PIERRE LARNAC around ..... The abbreviation stands for Colonia Nemauensis, the Latin name for Nimes, and the main device is the city's arms (these refer to the foundation of the original Roman colonia at Nimes by army veterans from Egypt). ... a similar seal of an early eighteenth-century Nimes maker of silk stockins and cloth, David Baumer, was found in a wreck off eastern Mexico."