Cloth Seal, German? John Peter B, Image & Sent by Martijn.
Probably found in the Netherlands.
Image in beaded border, possibly a palm tree (corrected to beech nut in its case*) on ornate stand but is regular and symmetrical and so could be the other way up and an elaborate orb with a crown at the top*, Inscription around - (J)OHNPETER.BVCHO?TZ??T. (the Z is backwards). Other side incused 1086 over 3(8?).
From the sender, "Do you know this type of cloth seal. It’s unknown to me, I suppose it might be a German cloth seal for bombazine (or bombazineliked) cloth. I know in southern Germany so-called ‘ grapetype’ cloth seals were used for bombazine and bombazineliked cloth. This type cloth seals were also introduced in more places in other countries (to imitate the cloth from southern Germany)."
From Paul Cannon , "I wonder if Jan’s seal (top one on the page) De West-Frisiae 4is the same or a very close variant?
I believe BSG.CS.00410 may read (starting at 4 o’clock):
In looking closely at Jan’s seal it seems to read (starting at 7 o’clock):
.S (retrograde) OHNPETER.(B)VCHOLTZ(…) .
I imagine that ‘Sohn Peter’ is a patronym ie son (of) Peter. The rest of the inscription may also be a surname. ‘Buchholzer’ is a German surname meaning beech wood. ‘Buchholz’ in Nordheide is also a town south of Hamburg in northern Germany and may have a link.
*Both seals have the same image in the centre of the seal. Could this be intended to be a representation of a beech tree I wonder, a sort of pun? Both seals would appear to help in the interpretation of the other. ... Having looked at the image in the centre of both seals several times, *I wonder if it may be interpreted as a beech nut in its case, rather than a beech tree. It would still function as a 'pun' on the person's name."