Not a Seal, Gothic, Orvietan Top (Sun in His Glory)

Not a Seal - Orvietan Top, Image & Found by Paul Hutchinson.
Found in Durham, 33mm.

Sun in its splendour // blank (crushed around raised edge)

From Cathrine Davis, "Orviétan caps are found throughout Europe and occasionally in North America, and usually date from the 17th-18th centuries. This close cousin of lead theriac caps (indeed the electuary orviétan includes theriac- also known as Venice treacle, theriaque, theriaca andromachi- as an ingredient) is usually identifiable by the appearance of the sun in splendour motif on its top, and remnants of the sides of the cap squashed under the top or broken off at the base. The relationship to the sun in splendour motif can be tied to the patent issued by Louis XIV to the Italian Christophe Contugi, who popularized the panacea in France, and to several subsequent edicts and advertisements claiming that the "real" orviétan (as opposed to the many imitations soon flowing throughout Europe) used the sun in splendour motif on its containers. Many orviétan caps likely belong to imitations or later production of orviétan, as gradually the popularity of the medicine eclipsed its owner's patent and became widely available. Some mention the location of their production or the name of a producer (Beaufort, Belletour)."

See also Orvietan - Wikipedia, "Gerolamo Ferranti started producing and selling orviétan in early 17th-century Paris. He was a fairground attraction, asking onlookers to give him unknown poisons to swallow and watch him cure himself with the remedy. Other charlatans in the business were Jean Vitrario, Desiderio Descombes, and Cristoforo Contugi. Though most physicians and pharmacists were skeptical, the reputed medical doctor Johann Schröder published his own recipe in Pharmacopeia Medico-Chymica in 1655. The first pharmacist to include orviétan in his compendium was Moyse Charas in Pharmacopée Royale Galénique et Chymique, 1676."