Russian Bale Seal, Baltic States, Hemp, SPB, 1787, Image & Found by Lammytheman.
Found in Cheshire.
First side:-
First line:- SPB = St. Petersburg
Second line:- LGKPH = Probably Roman script (G), Indicates the quality and type of goods but uncertain what initials stood for.*
Third line 1787 = Date of grading
Second side:-
First line:- ПД = PD = Hemp Inspection (but could also stand for Port Inspection or Tow Inspection*)
Second & Third lines:- Б:НЕМ = B:NEM
ИЛОВ = ILOV (initials & surname of Quality Control Officer, - B. Nemilov, also found on another SPB seal, SF.(SMR) COR 050 dated 1805)*
Fourth line:- H207 = N207 = the number of the post the QA Officer worked at.*
See Figs. on pages 54 & 55, *Russian Cloth Seals in Britain: Trade, Textiles and Origins by John Sullivan.
Bracking by Madonna of Utrecht: on the TreasureNet Forum.
"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.)
Note that the use of wooden and lead seal material is clearly differentiated by product type, i.e. wooden seals for hemp and lead seals for flax. Such differentiation would make it easier to inventory cargo below decks where light is minimal and at a premium."
Inscription deciphered and completed by Ged Dodd of The PeaceHavens Project, IDS 77 using his extensive database:- SPB / LGKPH / 1787 // ЛД = LD / Б.HEMИЛOB = B.NEMILOV / H207
