Cloth Seal, Cloth Worker's Privy Mark, Richards, Image & Found by Rich Ford.
Found in Bushley, 3km NW of Tewkesbury, 25mm.
Blank // '4' privy mark incorporating S/AIHCRD ligature
A cloth worker's seal, a parallel of which has been recorded by Geoff Egan - The London Archaeologist, Vol.3 No.7 Summer 1978, figure 2, top right, where he describes it as "merchant's mark with the letters of RICHARDS. The lower serif of the 'I' (below the 'A' and 'C') has failed to register on this example." The lower serif is very clear on this seal but it also appears that the 'C' has been lowered also and there is another C top left. Perhaps Geoff Egan would have re-interpreted the letters if he had seen all these examples or perhaps this is a later version of the seal with extra letters added (there could be another letter top right opposite the C top left). See also BSG.CS.01078 for yet another parallel.
