Cloth Seal, Essex, Alnage, TB, Commonwealth

Cloth Seal, Essex, Alnage, TB, Commonwealth, Image & Found by Guy Phillips.
Found on the Thames Foreshore, ?mm.

Esex / TB // shield bearing arms of England // blank

A complete four-disc Essex alnage seal. The plain St George cross was used during the Commonwealth period. TB was most likely the initials of the alnager. See p.373, Elton, S., Cloth Seals, An Illustrated Reference Guide to the Identification of Lead Seals Attached to Cloth: from the British Perspective. "TB, (?1625 – 1660) These seals have been published (Molaug 1980,173-83 & 195), citing a possible identification of the alnager TB as Tobias Blosse of Ipswich, which would tie down the date of the seals to the period 1625-31. Suffolk TB seal no. 3328 (see fig.53) could be of Commonwealth date, calling the identification as Tobias Blosse into question” [Egan, G., 1987, p.274]. Also, see PAS SUR-DF57C9 is stamped TB and dated to the reign of Charles II. Another candidate could be Thomas Bowde known to be Deputy Aulnager and Collector of the Subsidy and Aulnage in the county of Norfolk under the Dowager Duchess of Richmond and Lennox [‘Charles I volume 523: January 1626’, Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles I, 1625-49: Addenda (1897), pp. 94-101]."

This seal is the first recorded to show these initials on an Essex alnage seal.