Cloth Seal, Bristol Arms, Crowned Rose & Sun halved & joined
Cloth Seal, Bristol Arms, Crowned Rose & Sun halved & joined, Image & Found by Łukasz Połczyński.
Found in Gdańsk, Poland, 23mm.
Ship issuant from port, ...COM BRISTO* in Lombardic lettering around // missing but crown over rose & sun dimidiated & conjoined partial stamp on rivet stub
This appears to be a parallel to No.4 Fig.8, Egan, 'Lead Cloth Seals and Related Items in the British Museum' Occasional Paper 93, "The arms on the first disc are those of the City of Bristol. This late-medieval seal may perhaps have been issued as a result of legislation in 1483-4 (Statute 1 Ric.III c8), which required the arms of the county, city, borough etc. of origin to be on one side, the other side was to have the arms of the realm. A date around this time may be further supported by the use of the halved and joined sun and rose on coins of 1471-90 (North 1975, 74, 78-9 and 81).
Bristol is the only English city apart from London for which pre-1553 issues have been recorded so far. Several have been found in London, from different matrices ...
The high point in Bristol's early textile trade came in the late fourteenth century when, according to the available information, the number of cloths it exported sometimes dominated the figures for the whole nation (Bridbury 1982, 83). Although it was not pre-eminent a century later, the city's textile trade was still considerable."
See also no.704, Leaden Seals, Geoffrey Egan, Department of Medieval Archaelogy, University College,University of London, 1987, "ship issuant from (? )a port (in a tower) [arms of Bristol], D... (COM B... around// crown over sun and rose dimidiated & conjoined , ... COM... around".
BSG.CS.01075 shows a later seal for this city from Stuart Britain.
