Not a Cloth or Bag Seal, Capacity Seal, William III

Not a Cloth or Bag Seal, Capacity Seal, William III, Image & Found by Pete Hüsky Anning.
Found near Calne, Wiltshire, ?mm.

William III monogram on a capacity seal.

Identified by Paul Cannon.

See PAS LIN-940385 for another with a section of the earthenware handle still attached, "The stamp is a kind of capacity mark, to show that the particular stoneware vessel officially held the correct volume of liquid. Usually these marks were stamped integrally into the ceramic before firing (near the rim - ie inevitably close to the handle). They began under William III, who is referred to on this example with a similar crowned WR. The dating is not as simple as it might be at the end of C17/early C18th however, since after a few years of 'AR' stamps under Anne, someone noted that the wording in the Act instituting the stamps required 'WR,' and so they reverted to that for a while."