Cloth Seal, Alnage, Wilts, Image & Found by Ginjacelt1
Found in Gosport area.
Missing // ornate harp above lion couchant S (T?) (or 8 1) to sides // * , WILTS·81· around // missing
The separated second and third discs of a four part alnage seal. One shows a lion couchant with an ornate harp above featuring a figure carved on its outer upright and either side are the letters S and, probably, a T (or maybe 8 1). All this encircled by two rings, one thin and one thick. The other disc has a circular border of pellets with a five-armed asterisk at its centre. The space in between is filled with WILTS curving downwards and ·81· below.
Wiltshire was probably the most important cloth-producing county in the early 14th century and in the 16th century its broadcloths were reckoned to be the best quality available in the country but this Charles II seal is from a later date linked to a West Country series of four disc seals with the last two numbers only of the year shown.
See No.128, Fig.26 Geoff Egan, 'Lead Cloth Seals and Related Items in the British Museum' Occasional Paper 93.
