Cloth Seal, Sussex Alnage, W BG

Cloth Seal, Sussex Alnage, W BG, Image & Owned by David Powell.
Purchased in England, 20mm, 2.45g.

Missing // W / B:G, COM:SVSEX: around // missing // missing

An inner disc from a four-part alnage seal for the county of Sussex. Cloth seals for Sussex are very rare. Only one is recorded by Egan and that is for an earlier period [Egan, G., 1987, p.226, seal 3049]. This seal would probably date to the 17th century.

The initials are interesting in that they may copy the form of 17th century trade tokens where a triangle of letters is formed with the one at the apex representing the first letter of the surname and the two at the bottom that of the husband and wife. Husband and wife alnagers are known.