Russian Bale Seal, Baltic States, Flax, NP, 1790, Image & Found by Garry J.
This is a Russian flax or hemp bale quality control seal.
First side:-
First line - N.P. = unknown initials.*
Second line - AK12H = initials and numerals indicating the content of the bales.
Third line - 1790 = date of assessment.
Second side:-
First line - ЛД = LD = initials for (Flax?) Inspection.
Second & Third line - П.ТЮР / ИНЬ = P.TYuR / IN' = P.Tyurin, name of quality control officer, also found on seal KIRMG. 2006.334, in Kirkcaldy Museum and dated 1794.
Fourth line - H?8 = N?8 = number of work station used by QA officer (appears to be the same one he was still using in 1794, see p.84 & 166*).
See Fig.4b and section 5.2.5.6, p.22, *Russian Cloth Seals in Britain: Trade, Textiles and Origins by John Sullivan.
See David Powell's article in The Leaden Tokens Telegraph Nov. 2006 for a theory on NP being Cyrillic for Nr and possibly standing for the Estonian port of Narva.
"Baltic Bale Seals
We had a foretaste of these in April, when I illustrated a couple found in Gainsborough, Lincs, and reputed to be linked to the Baltic cloth trade; their Cyrillic script a novelty, but at least Lincolnshire is on the coast facing east. However, Nigel Tucker has now sent in four found in, of all place, Devon; i.e. right over the other side of the country. He has read that SPB, on the top of several pieces, stands for St.Petersburg; which begs the question, what towns do the other abbreviations stand for, and what does the rest of the writing mean? Not a question I thought I would have much hope of answering, until I found the following description of a journal article, published by the Tayside and Fife Archaeological Committee, on Google:
John Sullivan: ‘Lead Seals of Russian Origin in Fife’; abstract "--- Lead seals, although known from various European countries and usually referred to as ‘Russian flax bale seals’, have been little studied. They can, however, provide information on their town of origin, contents of the bales they sealed, and initials or names of owners and inspectors in Russia responsible for quality control. The article studies 233 seals found in Fife and provides a guide to their identification, sets out characteristics by which seals from different Russian towns can be recognised, and points out changes in their design from the late 18th to early 19th century."
I can recommend John’s excellent article in Vol.6 of the TAFAC Journal for those wishing further details, but herewith a brief summary. Any over-simplifications are my own.
There are three families of Russian bale seal commonly found in this country, distinguished by the initials
on the first line of their obverse, as follows:
ARX {ARCH} = Archangel {always Cyrillic?}
CAB {SPB } = St.Petersburg {Cyrillic or Western script}
NP {NR} = Narva {always Cyrillic}
John originally regarded the latter pieces as being of unknown origin but I am fairly confident after finding
the following passage on the Net: “Narva, Estonia: Trade between Tayside and Narva began at the end of
the 1820s with ships bringing timber and a little flax. This trade increased through the 1830s. By the late
19th century Narva was the region's major industrial city and rivalled Reval (Tallinn) as a port.“"
This is no longer considered correct see Ged Dodd's work below.
The evidence in John Sullivan's book points to them coming from St. Petersburg* but Ged Dodd's research suggests they are from various baltic states with the tax being paid to St Petersburg.
Ged Dodd, "in 1817, 1818 the ship Bruce arrived in Dundee with consignments of flax from St Petersburg ... all of the bales would be designated NP not SPB (SPB would have meant they were hemp) all seals with NP designation before 1829 are flax seals and all seals before 1829 with SPB are hemp seals ... without exception ... the rules changed in 1829 when faith in the Baltic Port grading system failed and NP was abolished.. Faith in the Archangel grading system held true which is why after about 1840 only Archangel seals have been found .. into the early 1900's. ... there are no NP designations after 1828."
