Cloth Seal, Clothier's Seal, Tiverton, Richard Alworth

Cloth Seal, Tiverton, Richard Alworth Clothier Seal, Image & Found by James Crombie.
Found in Yorkshire, 30 x 26mm.

022P in circular border // lion rampant, TIVERTON . RICH . ALWORTH . around

Two disc cloth seal showing lion rampant with inscription around - TIVERTON . RICH . ALWORTH . and on the other disc 022P in a circle border. Some cloth remains trapped near the connecting strip.

A cloth seal from Tiverton in Devon bearing the name Richard Alworth, Evans Type 4.4.1.*. This seal is also recorded as No.75 Fig.8 p.408, Maunder, P., Tiverton Cloth: The Story of the Town's Woollen Trade 1475 - 1815.

This is a cloth seal from Tiverton in Devon, one of very few known to have been found in England. The large amount of Tiverton serge produced was almost entirely exported to the Continent where many cloth seals have been recovered, mostly bearing the distinctive 4 impaled foot privy mark of Samuel Foote. The name Richard Alworth on this seal is believed to be fictitious, one of several along with other inherited trading names used by Oliver Peard after he took over the Tiverton serge business in 1744 on the death of George Osmond (Information kindly supplied by Jane Evans who has released a classification of Tiverton cloth seals in Peter Maunder's book Tiverton Cloth, the story of the town's woollen trade 1475-1815).

This seal was kindly donated to Tiverton Museum of Mid Devon Life by James Crombie. The fullest collection of Tiverton cloth seals (about thirty) is on permanent display in Tiverton Museum.

*A helpful classification system for these seals, devised by Jane Evans, can be found as an appendix to Peter Maunder’s comprehensive history of the Tiverton cloth trade.