Cloth Seal, Cloth Worker's Personal Seal, Initialled, IB
Cloth Seal, Cloth Worker's Personal Seal, Initialled, IB, Image & Found by James Lomas.
Found ?, ?mm.
No decipherable markings // I B in scroll work joining to flower heads above
It is difficult sometimes to know where decoration that includes initials becomes a ligature and where they become a privy / merchant mark. The design suggests late 16th or 17th century use.
See:- Colchester Archaeological Report 5: The post-Roman small finds from excavations in Colchester 1971-85, Nina Crummy. (Leaden Seals for Cloths, G. Egan, P.34, Find 1943, Fig.38), "Probably a seal to identify either the clothier (the capital-owner who had the cloth woven and put on sale), or the weaver."
This seal seems to support the IB initials shown in that drawing as opposed to HB mentioned in the written description but see BSG.CS.00071. It would appear that there are both IB and HB seals of the same design out there.