Cloth Seal, Dutch, Leiden, Crossed Keys, Image & Found by Tony Thira.
Found on Thames Foreshore, Dowgate, 34mm, 6g.
Crown / flower head / crossed keys on shield, foliate design to sides inscription below. 3 secondary stamps - circular .x. / LEIDN / VERWE / .x. - rectangular counting mark - circular double-headed eagle // missing but rivet stub has partial stamp of Belgic lion rampant, reverse of rivet disc has cloth weave imprint
A cloth seal from Leiden that displays many devices used by the city.
There are several similar seals in Geoff Egan's 'Lead Cloth Seals and Related Items in the British Museum' B.M. Occasional Paper 93.
"Leiden's important and varied textile industry is widely represented by finds of seals in England and on the Continent. In the 1660s its products undercut the prices for similar English fabrics in this country. Leiden's Lakenhal (cloth hall) Museum has an extensive collection of items relating to the sealing of cloths which took place there."
No. 322, Fig. 43 Geoff Egan, Lead Cloth Seals & Related Items in the British Museum, shows a Leiden seal with a small secondary stamp of a double headed eagle used to indicate the dye quality and colour (one eagle - light black). There is a placard by the city of Leiden aimed at foreign markets and detailing the eagle tally marks for dye quality and colour, 1587, [Regionaal Archief Leiden]. The rectangular secondary stamp indicates the length of the cloth using a Dutch system of notation that was also used on weights in the Netherlands [K M C Zevenboom; D A Wittop Koning, Nederlandse gewichten : stelsels, ijkwezen, vormen, makers en merken], on other seals the same system is scratched - BSG.CS.01028.
