Inner disc from a four-disc alnage seal. Note tears where the rivit and rove discs were attached.
See BSG.OS.00096 for a token that has been fashioned from a parallel seal, and BSG.CS.01353 for a seal from the same series but for 1d instead of 4d.
The lion rampant has elements that are similar in style to those found on the Continent, which throws doubt onto the English identification, but crowned lions are known on English seals, BSG.CS.00482 & BSG.CS.00229, and the four-disc construction is more common in England.
See also BSG.CS.01300 for possible alnager's initials WM.
See Euro-Plombs for further discussion on this seal.
*Identified by Philippe Lanez - The London Gazette, Part 1, p.367, T. Neuman, 1844, "Notice is hereby given, that the Partnership lately subsisting between us the undersigned, Thomas Delf and William Kent, as Drapers, and carried on at Beccles, in the county of Suffolk, under the style or firm of Delf and Kent, was this day dissolved by mutual consent; and notice is hereby also given, that all debts due and owing to and from the said firm will be received and paid by the said Thomas Delf. - Witness our hands the 1st day of February 1844. Thos. Delf. Wm. Kent."
Philippe also recognised the crown on the lion as being the crown of Edmund with crossed arrows as features in the arms of Suffolk.
With this information we can trace it to Suffolk and William Kent with a high degree of certainty. The WM is probably short for William despite the full stops (see how Wm was used in the signatures of the above documents). As this reference refers to the end of a pertnership we cannot be certain if William Kent employed these seals before, after or even at the same time of this partnership with Thomas Delf in the drapery business.
