Cloth Seal, Suffolk, Alnage, ToH Ligature, Image & Found by Dave Hiddleston.
Found on Thames foreshore, near Leadenhall Street, 50 x ?mm.
Blank // ToH ligature, SUFOL around, square border // thistle, square border // (T?)H ligature bearing 1 6 impaled on horizontal of (T?), star to left and beneath
See Egan, G., 1987, seal 2360 A-D, 4827 & 4871, p.221. These have a T mounted on the horizontal bar of the H with a small o on the vertical of the T as can be seen on the second disc of this seal. Egan describes it as a mark and does not associate it with the TH / HT alnager with a similar ligature known from Essex, Surrey and Kent seals. The abbreviation COM for county could well precede Suffolk on this seal but damage has obscured it. The seals listed by Egan all show the same SVFOL (COMSVFOL) without the K and have a thistle on the third disc.
The unique feature of this seal is the rivet and rove disc, disc four. Although distorted by the separation of the discs it appears to show a variation of the (TH?) ligature but no o is evident this time on the vertical of the T which appears to extend above the the top horizontal cross-bar of that letter* and the horizontal impales 1 to the left and 6 to the right, perhaps suggesting the date of 1616. This is a very useful contribution as no dating has far been attributable to this series of seals.
*A similar TH with extended vertical on the T can be seen on BSG.CS.00380.
