Russian Bale Seal, Archangel, Image & Found by Alb 38.
Found near Hull.
An Archangel flax or hemp bale seal - 1847.
First side:-
First line - missing but usually АPX:ПOP = Archangel Port
Second line - largely illegible but normally an abbreviation of Desyatnik = rank of quality control officer
Third & Fourth line - gives the the Christian and surname of the quality control officer but again largely illegible on this seal.
Second Side:-
First line - missing but usually APX БРАK = Archangel Bracking (grading)
Second line - КУДЕЛЬ = kudel' = tow,contents of the bale
Third line - 1 COPTЪ = 1 SORTB = 1st Grade
Fourth line - В:ЛЕД = V:LED = initials of the owner or producer or agent
Fifth line - 1847 = year when grading took place.
See Fig.52b, p.60, Russian Cloth Seals in Britain: Trade, Textiles and Origins by John Sullivan, 2012.
Bracking by Madonna of Utrecht:
"In many of the Baltic ports servicing Dutch and Hanseatic trade, bracking practices were rigidly defined. Bracking refers to the official separation and grading of different types of goods according to their quality. Often a Baltic port would compete to outdo other rival ports with the accuracy of its bracking and official brackers. Alfred Crosby, one of the few authors whose research touches on this subject, writes about bracking with respect to 19th century Russian trade and specifically ties the use of the lead bale seal to the bracking flax cloth:
One of the features most attractive to traders about St. Petersburg and the other Russian ports was bracking. Bracking was the official inspections and sorting into different grades of the goods for export. To be noted for honest and efficient bracking was a great advantage to a port. As each bracker inspected and graded merchandise, he guaranteed his honesty and judgment by affixing his name to the inspected articles: the casks of tallow or oil by stamping. the flax by a lead tally attached with a string, the hemp by a wooden tally placed inside the bale. Thus, if a bracker let some inferior merchandize slip by or rated some as of higher quality than it truly was, he could be brought to answer. If the charges against him were proven, he would be liable to severe punishment. (Alfred W. Crosby. America, Russia, Hemp, and Napoleon (Ohio State University Press, 1965) p. 30.)"
From Ged Dodd, "Obverse :- APX.БP / ДЕСЯТH / МИХАИЛО / СВЕШНИКОВЪ
Archangel Bracked by inspector MIKHAILO SVESHNIKOV
Reverse :- APX БP / КУДЕЛН / 1.СОРТЪ / В:ЛЕD / 1848
Archangel Bracked (inspected) 1st SORT KUDEL'N Flax inspected in 1848. (Kudel'n is the coarse broken part of flax after the Heckling and Scutching processes).
The Grower/Owner/Agent initials are В:ЛЕD (V.LED) .. В:ЛЕD is a combintaion of Cyrillic ЛЕ and Cursive D explained in more detail on The PeaceHavens Project. See IDS 1181 on The PeaceHavens Project, Seal Numbers 1101 - 1200."
