Cloth Seal, Colchester Dutch Community Seal, Say, 1586 onward
Cloth Seal, Colchester Dutch Community Seal, Say, 1586, Image & Found by Tomredmayne.
Found near Saltfleet in Lincolnshire, 20mm diameter.
First line missing but from other seals - (DVYTSH) / COLC(H)E(S) /TER / SAYE / 1586 (The HE are fused in a ligature). Possibly traces of the cross reguly and three coronets from the arms of Colchester on the rivet which is all that is left of the other side.
From the finder:- "This one says COLCESTER SAY F 1586.
Say was a very fine wool cloth similar to worsted produced in Colchester in particular, when the Flemish weavers established themselves there between 1550 and 1600. The cloth was used for high quality cloaks and tablecloths.
I am not sure about the F, maybe a grade of the cloth?"
This seal matches, no 26, p.30 and Fig.12, p.163, Geoff Egan (1994) Lead cloth seals and related items in the British Museum:- "Several seals with stamps of this kind found in London show the date would have been 1582 or 1586 (no documentary evidence for any special significance for these stamps is known; they may simply be the year in which the seal was used). The P-like mark is also known on one of the Colchester parallels and a few Dutch community seals from Norwich and Sandwich."
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