Seed Merchants, Durant and Sons, Tawton Devon

Seed Merchants, Durant and Sons, Tawton Devon, Image & Found by Chris Gates.
Found near Whimple, Devon, 21mm.

Shield bearing a mangold with ribbon CHALLENGE (PICKED?), DURANT AND SONS curved down NORTH TAWTON DEVON curved up around // .GENUINE UNADUL(TERATED S)EEDS. around border

Identified by Paul Cannon,"This is a seed merchants seal. Face with shield reads on upper part ‘DURANT AND SONS’ and lower part ‘NORTH TAWTON DEVON’. From the evidence of adverts Durant and Sons were established as an agricultural seed merchants in 1866 and the firm were still operating in the 1940s. They operated from the North Devon Seed Establishment and appear to have specialised in the production of seeds for root crops to feed animals, namely mangolds (mangels) and swedes but also sold grass seeds, rye and clover. The inscription to the left of the shield appears to read ‘CHALLENGE’. The one to the right is unclear. I wonder if the image on the shield is a mangold plant. The other face of the seal reads ‘.GENUINE UNADUL[TERATED S]EEDS."