Russian Bale Seal, Baltic States, Hemp, SPB, 1840, Image & Found by Donnydave.
From East Yorkshire.
First side:-
First line:- Missing but probably SPB = St. Petersburg
Second line:- Missing = Indicates the quality and type of goods but uncertain what initials stood for.*
Third line:- F.?. = Initials of the owner or exporter
Fourth line 184(0?) = Date of grading
Second side:-
First line:- ПД = PD = Hemp Inspection (which could also stand for Port Inspection or Tow Inspection*)
Second & Third lines:- К.КОДП / ШИКО(В?) = K.KODP / ShIKO(V?) = (initials & surname of Quality Control Officer.)*
Fourth line:- H1?? = N1?? = the number of the post the QA Officer worked at.*
These seals are Russian flax or hemp bale quality control seals. It would have had the initials SPB which was the Russian abbreviated form for the city - sometimes in Roman script and sometimes in Cyrillic, CПБ.
See Fig. 12b on page 54, *Russian Cloth Seals in Britain: Trade, Textiles and Origins by John Sullivan.
From Ged Dodd," ПД (Penkovy Dosmotr) in this postion can only mean Hemp Inspector .. ПД as dockside inspector (Portovy Dosmotr) can only exist in the combination ПiЛПД (Hemp and Flax Dockside Inspector) (Penkovy i L'nyanoy Portovy Dosmotr) also ПД can not be read as Tow inspector as Tow is just one form of hemp .. and as every hemp seal has ПД they can not all be tow .. QED.
ПД =PD / К.КОЛПШИКОВЬ / H188 /// SPB / H._1 / F.W. / 1840 Hemp inspector K.KOLPSHIKOV working out of 188 post in the port of St Petersburg, Kronstadt, Narva, Riga, Libau, Memel, Konigsberg, Pilau, Pernau, Revel or Tilsit ..in the year 1840. . all of these ports used SPB for their hemp seals before the year 1829 as a certification of the hemp bracking (inspection) by the Russian Empire.. SPB does not mean this seal was shipped from St Petersburg. (but it may have been).
The Grower/Owner/Agent initials are F.W with 1st grade hemp plants in the bale ... . See ref IDS 1159 on The PeaceHavens Project - Seal Numbers 1101 - 1200."
