RIGA Seal, Image & Found by Donnydave.
Found at South Newbald East Yorkshire.
Fascinating seal with the arms of the city of Riga*, a dragon either side of a building with pointed towers and Cyrillic script beneath (РИГА = RIGA) and surrounding it in a bordering annulus (Б?КАИ.(Я?).Б???...). The other side has a similar border annulus possibly containing the same script but in the Western alphabet, possibly FABRIC with a 5 pointed star. In the middle is another detail from the arms of Riga, crossed keys with a crown above and beneath these are the letters RIGA.
From Paul Cannon, "I think the surname can be reconstructed as БЛОС[ФЕЛЬД] ie Blosfeld. His firm is mentioned in a Russian forum discussing Riga Balsam. The demand for ‘true’ original Riga Balsam was so great during the 19th century that one plant could not meet all of this demand. Several industrialists stepped in to fill the gap and one of these was Блосфельд see Onliner approx 1/5 down the page. Blosfeld is mentioned below the enameled sign. Blosfeld’s firm is also mentioned in a book published in Latvia, in English. The authors state “At the factories owned by Blosfeld, Bergbohm, and Count Medem Sukmanis the balsam was poured into glass bottles and ladled into tiny 0.125-liter containers”. See “Journey to the Land of Black Balsam”, Rankevic A., Nikishin A. & Shlychkov A. (2017) p94.
I believe that the seal probably has the same inscription on both sides but one in Russian and the other in German."
From Tanya Flow, "CTAPЫЙ and doktor63" From Paul Cannon, "Both were found on the Russian Meshok auction site. These appear not to be exactly the same as this Bagseals example above. The obverse of this reads ФАБРИКА И.Л.БЛО[СФЕЛЬДТ] (starting to read at just after 6 o’clock), as Tanya Flow originally suggested and not ВОДОЧН.ЗАВ as on both the Меshok seals. It would appear that Blossfeldt issued at least two styles of seal."
From Ged Dodd, "Obverse:- ВОДОЧН(ЫЙ) ЗАВ(ОД). И.Л.БЛОСФЕЛЬДТЪ / РИГА with the city arms of Riga from 1710 to 1914.
Vodka Factory for J.L.BLOSSFELDT in RIGA.
Reverse: FABRIK VON J.L.BLOSSFELDT / RIGA
with the crossed keys arms of a more modern Riga.
FACTORY FOR J.L.BLOSSFELDT in RIGA (German)
This seal carries the city arms for Riga rather than the normal prominent crossed keys on most Riga seals.
A ceramic bottle top has the name J.L.Blossfeldt * RIGA *
I have added two other similar seals from Russia that are complete and readable.
see reference IDS 2211, 2212, 2213 on The PeaceHavens Project, Riga Black Balsam Seals."
