Cloth Seal, Yorkshire County Alnage Portcullis Seal, Image by StuE, Finder Unknown.
Found in England, 14mm, 3.8g.
Two disc seal showing an off-struck crowned and chained portcullis with a legend circling. It is largely missing but from parallels may well be [S'VLN'PAO'VEAL'I CO'Y]ORKSHI[RE]. The other side is blank.
See:- PROVENANCED LEADEN CLOTH SEALS by GEOFFREY EGAN, Sub-Department of Medieval Archaelogy, University College, University of London. submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 1987, "Crown-over-Portcullis Series of County Seals. This group is one of the largest recorded. The basic design is: crown over chained portcullis (usually with a lattice of 3X3 squares) with various abbreviations, usually for 'sigillum ulnagii pannorum venalium in comitatu... ' (seal of alnage of saleable cloths in the county of... ) in Lombardic letters. Stamps with Roman-letter legends have ER to the sides of a portcullis with a lattice of 3X3, 4X3, or 4X4 squares and an abbreviated version of 'sigillum pro comitatu... '(seal for the county of... ). The most common abbreviations are: (for Lombardic-letter legends) S'VLN'PAO'VEAL'I CO'...;(for Roman-letter legends) ... PRO-COMITA ... ...Even where (presumably genuine) portcullis seals had edge legends, few stamps registered fully. Those on which the place of origin is legible, seem, on present evidence, to have been in the minority."
Examples for Gloucester and Kent with similar designs can be seen in No.41 Fig.16 and Nos. 48 and 49 Fig.18, Egan, Lead Cloth Seals and Related Items in the British Museum. The series is believed to have originated in the sixteenth century and may have continued into the early years of the reign of James I.
