Cloth Seal, Clothier's Seal, Manchester, Thomas Hampson
Cloth Seal, Clothier's Seal, Manchester, Thomas Hampson, Image & Held by Michel Royer.
Found in Amsterdam, Netherlands, 30mm.
THO: / HampSon / @ / (MANCH) ESTER // 40
Identified by Michel Royer, "Textile seal for fustian or nakeen products produced by Thomas Hampson's factory in Manchester. It is known from genealogical evidence that Mary Jane Hampson born in 1817 in Manchester married Thomas Walter Pike (son of a draper) in 1838. The marriage certificate indicates that Mary's father, Thomas Hampson, was a textile manufacturer originating from Radcliffe and according to the 'Piggott's Directory of Manchester' of 1841 he manufactured nankin and fustian. The seal is of the first half of the 19th century."
The @ symbol is first mentioned in a measurement gauge context in a document dated 1536 concerned with the size of amphorae. There are many more examples of Leiden seals showing this @ sign above a length, all using the same letter type. In Leiden Museum they have seal matrices for these types of cloth seals. [p.312, Elton, S., Cloth Seals, Archaeopress 2017] On this English seal, however, it probably simply indicates 'at' Manchester rather than its commercial meaning of "at a rate of".
