Italian, Sumac Seal, Image & Found by DaveyJ.
Found in Rayleigh, Essex, 16mm, 5.9g.
A fleur di Lis with SUMAC curved above has inscription around - ...Y VENTILATED*E... // A figure (boy?) looking over his shoulder and holding an implement (rake?) inscription around - ...ANO DI??. curving down and ...S & Co curving upwards.
From Paul Cannon, "I believe the face with the fleur-de-lis in the centre may be reconstructed as “*F[INEST QUALIT]Y VENTILATED SUMAC”. In searching Veitch’s Sicilian sumac producers the same phrase is recorded on only one sample but unfortunately the manufacturer is marked as unknown. See Table II, p 18 and sample no. 402 and column headed ‘statement on bags as to purity’. Regarding the other face I think the word beneath the figure may end in …ERMO and it can probably be reconstructed as [PAL]ERMO. With regard to the rest of the inscription ………ANO DI ……. Veitch’s list of sumac producers includes ‘V.Vitriano di Gsp., Palermo’,“Commercial Sicilian Sumac” by F P Veitch (1908)." See Table II, p 14 and sample no. 157. Only a better preserved example will help to confirm this*."
*See BSG.BS.01828 for confirmation.
