Cloth Seal, German, Wesel, Bombasines, Image & Found by Mlýnek Karel.
Found near city Pardubitz Czech Republik, 20mm.
BOM / BASY / *N* // arms of Wesel
A two-disc cloth seal from Wesel, Germany.
See No.319 Fig.42, Geoff Egan, 'Lead Cloth Seals and Related Items in the British Museum' Occasional Paper 93.
"The town's bombasines appear in seventeen-century books listing the duty payable on goods imported into England; 'weazell fustians' are rated at £2 in the book of(?)1609, and at £8 under Charles II (James 1857, 155). Dating to the end of the sixteenth/seventeenth century seems appropriate for [these] seals. ... The town's four-part seals may well be of slightly later date, but the fabric(s) could have remained the same."
For another example of this seal see Euro-Plombs, "Seal lead with arms and name of the city of Wesel in Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia. The reverse indicates that the fabric concerned was bombasin (a kind of silk fabric originally made in Milian - bombasin being a finer silk fabric than bombasin) which was one of the specialties of the city. The lead is dated (15)82. The textile industry, in particular that of cloth, made the fortune of Wesel which joined the Hansa in 1407. The city thus became one of the most important markets and a hub for trade from Holland and Westphalia to Cologne . The city was one of the five cities of the Hansa of Cologne."
