Cloth Seal, Norwich, Deficient Cloth Seal, Image by StuE, Found by JCMaloney.
Found in Wymeswold Parish, Leicestershire.
TO / NARO / WE // castle, lion passant below
A Norwich deficient cloth seal attached to cloths that were not long enough or, as in this case, not wide enough. See Provenanced Leaden Cloth Seals by Geoffrey Egan, Sub-Department of Medieval Archaeology, University College, University of London, submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 1987, p.186 & 187, "These are defined by two basic types of stamp, reading 'too short' and 'too narrow'. They are probably all of 17th-century date *. The series has no direct parallel in any other county , though special seals for cloths with unspecified faulty workmanship or materials go back to late-medieval times (see Medieval seals with 'F' for faulty). Whether the quantity of these Norfolk seals recorded indicates that the county produced more deficient textiles than was the case elsewhere, or whether searching and sealing here was just more efficient, is not known. *many references up to 1650 in the Mayor's Court Minutes (at the Norfolk Records Office) to fraudulent stuffs;"
