Cloth Seal, Stuart Arms, Image & Found by James Crombie.
Found in England, 39 x 17mm.
Complete four part cloth seal; disk 1 - off struck 2 in fused pellet border, disc 2 - WH four pellets above and one below all in an annulus inscribed WVT(N -retrograde)EY, disc 3 - Arms of Stuart Britain (possibly crowned and with IR to sides) all in a border of pellets, disc 4 - crown with inscription SREXIA... around.
The inscription on disc 4 could be split either side of the figure giving (ME)S REX IA - JAMES REX. In the light of the discovery below* other inscription, WUTNEY is the pronunciation and spelling of the time for Witney and the initials WH most probably stand for the alnager William Howes (at least two generations of the same name) who were blanket alnagers for Witney from 1610 to 1641. The figure 2 on disc 1 would also match up with the original 2d sealing fee (subsidy).
*William Howes, son and father before him, (V. C. H. Oxfordshire 1907,248) the blanket makers of Witney complained that the local alnage-patent holder, William Howes, and for 30 years previously his late father of the same name, had been making themselves rich on the fees for sealing each bundle of blankets (which had been raised from 2d to 6d) and on fines.
A Witney blanket timeline, "1594 an 'alnager' or cloth searcher was appointed to work in Witney to inspect the woollen goods made there ... 1641 Witney blanket makers petition the House of Lords to protest that they were being overcharged by a blanket inspector".
Egan seems to have come to the same conclusion based on a single surviving disc from a four part seal - [Egan, G., 1987, p.203 & 269, seal 1979].
