Cloth Seal, Portcullis, Image by StuE, Found by Cymap.
Found in Suffolk, 23.3mm, 8.7g.
A two disc seal apparently bearing the same design on both sides, a crowned and chained portcullis with a legend circling. It is faint and largely missing but from parallels may well be S'VLN'PAO'VEAL'I CO'...
See:- PROVENANCED LEADEN CLOTH SEALS by GEOFFREY EGAN, Sub-Department of Medieval Archaelogy, University College, University of London. submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 1987, "Crown-over-Portcullis Series of County Seals. This group is one of the largest recorded. The basic design is: crown over chained portcullis (usually with a lattice of 3X3 squares) with various abbreviations, usually for 'sigillum ulnagii pannorum venalium in comitatu... ' (seal of alnage of saleable cloths in the county of... ) in Lombardic letters. Stamps with Roman-letter legends have ER to the sides of a portcullis with a lattice of 3X3, 4X3, or 4X4 squares and an abbreviated version of 'sigillum pro comitatu... '(seal for the county of... ). The most common abbreviations are: (for Lombardic-letter legends) S'VLN'PAO'VEAL'I CO'...;(for Roman-letter legends) ... PRO-COMITA ... ...Even where (presumably genuine) portcullis seals had edge legends, few stamps registered fully. Those on which the place of origin is legible, seem, on present evidence, to have been in the minority."
Examples for Gloucester and Kent with similar designs on one side can be seen in No.41 Fig.16 and Nos. 48 and 49 Fig.18, Egan, Lead Cloth Seals and Related Items in the British Museum, but unfortunately the section of the inscription displaying the county is missing on both sides on this seal. The find spot and Lombardic script suggest it is a Suffolk County alnage seal. No other example with the design on both sides is known. The series is believed to have originated in the sixteenth century and may have continued into the early years of the reign of James I.
