Cloth Seal, Dutch, Leiden, Crossed Keys
Cloth Seal, Dutch, Leiden, Crossed Keys, Image & Found by Peter Eggers.
Found in Amsterdam, 'de Stopera', Netherlands, 36mm, 22.2g.
Crown / flowerhead / crossed keys on shield, foliate design & (L)EID(EN IN HOLLAN)DT around below. 4 secondary stamps - circular PL ligate - rectangular counting mark - circular double-headed eagle - circular x flowerhead x / LEYDE / VERWE / x flowerhead x - circular double-headed eagle // stamp of Belgic lion rampant with smaller lion on helmet/crown? (or maybe some secondary double stamping?)
A double-rivet cloth seal from Leiden that displays many devices used by the city. Possibly two different stamps have been used for the reverse as two different sized lions and two different borders are shown?
There are several similar seals in Geoff Egan's 'Lead Cloth Seals and Related Items in the British Museum' B.M. Occasional Paper 93. "Leiden's important and varied textile industry is widely represented by finds of seals in England and on the Continent. In the 1660s its products undercut the prices for similar English fabrics in this country. Leiden's Lakenhal (cloth hall) Museum has an extensive collection of items relating to the sealing of cloths which took place there."
No. 322, Fig. 43 Geoff Egan, Lead Cloth Seals & Related Items in the British Museum, shows a Leiden seal with a small secondary stamp of a double headed eagle used to indicate the dye quality and colour (one eagle - light black). There is a placard by the city of Leiden aimed at foreign markets and detailing the eagle tally marks for dye quality and colour, 1587, [Regionaal Archief Leiden]. The counting mark rectangular secondary stamp indicates the length of the cloth using a Dutch system of notation that was also used on weights in the Netherlands [K M C Zevenboom; D A Wittop Koning, Nederlandse gewichten : stelsels, ijkwezen, vormen, makers en merken], on other seals the same system is scratched - BSG.CS.01028.
See BSG.CS.01564 for parallel seal found in London. Unfortunately head of lion is missing on that one.
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