Cloth Seal, Germanic Merchant's Seal, Triple Rose, Image & Found by S.Bostelaar.
Found in Middelburg, Netherlands, 20g, 43mm.
Triple rose, GVILHELMVS ALMANDETE around // missing*
*Assuming this is a double disc fused seal of the 'Germanic merchant' type but it could be an inner disc from a conventional English four-disc cloth seal with the remains of the attachments smoothed off, however the inscription appears to rule this out. But see BSG.CS.01539, which makes me think this is part of a four-disc armorial type seal.
The name Gvilhelmus Almandete is known on other seals. p.280, Elton, Cloth Seals, Archaeopress, 2017, "Two similar seals, dated 1570 and 1583, that combine a ‘Tudor’ rose with Germanic words (this time a name, Gvilhelmus Almandete) are in the Kulturen Museum, Lund. It is suggested that they had been attached to English cloth that had been exported to Germany, where it was dyed before being sold on [Rodenburg, N.M., 2011, p.71]."
See also Huszár L 1961, Merchant’s seals of the 16th and 17th centuries, "As to the place of production of these medals, the English hold the problem as undecided. In their opinion the medals were undoubtedly closing seals, chiefly for cloth bales but they had not been made in England. For supporting this opinion one of the principal arguments is that such medals have been found in several countries but never in England. Furthermore the aforementioned Hans Han medal, is entirely Flemish in character. Finally a medal has come to light near Moscow, of similar character but of later date (after 1603), bearing in its legend, besides the name of Jacob I, the foreign Flemish or German word 'Coninck' (König). All these proves to be a foreign production." pp.193-194.
