Cloth Seal, French, Tours, Three Towers, Image & Found by Redgy Dewulf.
Found in maritime Flanders, 16mm.
Crowned L with three fleurs-de-lis around // crown over shield bearing three towers, G L to sides
A parallel seal dated late 17th to early 18th century (pre-1731) is published as No.306, Fig.40, [Egan, 1994]. Egan describes the crowned L with three fleurs-de-lis around as being the arms of the local guild of silk-weavers, with the L apparently referring to Louis XI (1461-83), who was regarded as the founder of the Tours silk industry. The same design is also known to have been a cipher used by Louis XV (1715-74) on some of his coins.
Parallels have been found in, Oxfordshire (Crowmarsh) PAS SUR-35C2C3 (this is an excellent example), Yorkshire (near York) PAS YORYM-DB5854, Hertfordshire (parish of Lilley) SUSS-8564A5 and a tentative Tours seal in County Durham (near Elvet) PAS PUBLIC-308430.
Sometimes Tours is represented by a single tower and three fleurs-de-lis when it can easily be confused with Tournai, which has a single tower and two fleurs-de-lis.
