Cloth Seal, Colchester, English Saye, Image & Found by Tony Thira.
Found on Thames foreshore just upstream London Bridge, north side, total length 60mm, discs diameter 23mm.
Vertical stave raguly with two crowns/coronets on ornate shield with 1618 to sides // (E)NG / LISH / (*) COL * / CHESTER / SAYE / 1618
This is a complete, opened, two-disc Colchester English saye seal. The 1618 date marks the year when the indigenous weavers belatedly set-up their own group to try and share in the success of the Colchester Dutch immigrants' corporation founded in 1571. Their saye never achieved the quality of the Dutch and there is no evidence that they ever produced bay.
See No.39, Fig.15 Geoff Egan*, Lead Cloth Seals and Related Items in the British Museum.
"D.27mm/27/mm; crude engraving. ENG/LISH/ pierced six-armed star COL/CHEST.../SAY..//(offstruck) ornate shield with: vertical line and crown, 16 to left .... found in the Thames ..... More complete parallels show the full legend was 'ENGLISH COLCHESTER SAYE 1618', with the date repeated to the sides of a simplified version of the town arms, a vertical stave raguly with two crowns/coronets... The belated commercial response of the native English weavers of Colchester to the success of the Dutch immigrants' new kinds of textiles appears among the seals with stamps specifying 'English Colchester' and dated 1618, the year the indigenous textile manufacturers formed a new corporation of their own. The device with the town arms on large, four-part seals .... was probably intended to look very similar to those of the Dutch community ...... The four-disc seals are thought to pre-date the less impressive, cheaper two-disc variety." Which this one is although probably an early one as the quality of the die cutting and casting is still good compared to other examples (see BSG.CS.00126).
