Cloth Seal, George I, Alnage, 1714 onward, Image & Found by James Crombie.
Found in Yorkshire, 28 x 13mm.
missing // bust of George I inscription around - FIDEI DEFEN // missing // (on rivet head) (R retrograde)WR ligature
Two discs with rivet from a four disc alnage seal with disc 2 displaying the bust of George I with FIDEI DEFEN inscription curved around, all in a circular border of short rays. The rivet head shows part of a crowned ligature WR (not shown is the retrograde R joined to the first arm of the W in the complete ligature of William III).
See Geoff Egan, 'Lead cloth seals and related items in the B.M. (B.M.occ.papers 93)' No specific match but portrait matches George I, see Figs.27 & 28 Nos.154, 161 & 168.
The inscription 'Defender of the Faith' is in keeping with the head of George I (and several other monarchs) but the ligature is that of William III.
See P.64, Endrei, W. and Egan, G. 1982. ‘The sealing of cloth in Europe, with special reference to the English evidence’, Textile History, 13, 47-75. :-
"A stamp with a crowned royal cypher was sometimes used from the reign of William III onwards to close the outer lobes, though more frequently these simply have the rivet hammered flat without any device; (symptoms, perhaps, of an increasingly impersonal and perfunctory operation of the alnage, as searchers found the volume of production irreconcilable with proper examination). A number of the dies used for stamping the royal cyphers remained in use subsequent to the reign they indicate; for example William III cyphers were employed to close seals stamped on the inner lobes with the head of George I."
