Cloth Seal, Dye Seal, London Dyers Company, Three Stars
Cloth Seal, Dye Seal, London Dyers Company, Three Stars Image by StuE, Found by Stuart Wyatt.
Found on the Thames foreshore, 22mm, 5.3g.
Group of four pellets surrounded by three stars with six wavy arms, C C to sides // madderbag, W .. above
Probably a London Dyers' Company two part seal. The inscription around the madderbag may well be a place name of the area where the dying was carried out. *The Company had their hall on a plot known as the Three Star Messuage probably indicated by the design on the first disc. (A messuage is an old term for a dwelling with its out buildings and land)
*From information kindly supplied by Jim Crombie.
See p.17 & note 15, Egan, G., 1991, Industry and Economics on the Medieval and later London Waterfront. In G.L. Good et al. (eds.), Waterfront Archaeology, Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Waterfront Archaeology held at Bristol 23-26 September 1988 (Council for British Archaeology Research Report 74), 9-18, "Some of these seals from the Swan Lane area have stamps with three stars that may be a reference to Dyer's Hall. ... From the middle of the 16th century the guild's hall occupied part of a plot known as a 'Three Star Messuage', which extended from Thames Street to the river frontage. Another dyer's hall was located in c 1470 in Anchor Lane near Three Cranes."
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