Cloth Seal, Dye Seal, London Dyers Company, WM over Madderbag

Cloth Seal, Dye Seal, London Dyers Company, WM over Madderbag, Image & Found by Denise Moncaster.
Found in Lincolnshire, ?mm.

Undeciphered markings // distorted madderbag, WM above

The W normally stands for woad but in this case it may be the first initial of the dyer (see BSG.CS.00382 for a similar seal with the initials WR). The madderbag was a general symbol of the London Dyers’ Guild and not as a specific indication of red dye - see Fig.35, London Dyers' Company seals, Geoff Egan, British Museum Occasional Paper 93, Lead Cloth Seals & Related Items in the British Museum. This would date it between the end of the sixteenth and start of the eighteenth century.

See Ciba Review 1: Medieval Dyeing for an image of the full arms of the Worshipful Company of London Dyers and medieval dyeing in general.