Cloth Seal, Cloth Worker's Personal Seal, Privy Mark, 4xx, TP, 1500~1825

Cloth Seal, Cloth Workers Privy Mark, TP, Image & Found by Groats.

The privy mark on this seal was originally thought to be BP but the missed placed loops of the B are probably the stamped number 3 pressing through from the other side. It may also be an I rather than a T making it IP.

The 4 XX mark with initials either side is very similar to No.239, Fig.32 & No.267 Fig.35, Geoff Egan. 'British Museum Occasional Paper 93, Lead Cloth Seals & Related Items in the British Museum'
"[No.239]This could be a seal for a weaver, a clothier or a dyer. (?)Late seventeenth -/eighteenth-century"

"Numbers 267-76 are from an extensive series of apparently official London Dyer's Company seals which indicate the colourant(s) used or some information about them. They also give the initials of individuals involved in some way with the dyeing or an indication of the location of the dye-house. Dated seals in this series are known from1613-1634 or 1654, though they were probably in use for a considerably longer period (perhaps from the late sixteenth to the late seventeenth centuries). It is not certain whether the seals were purely descriptive, issued by the (?master) dyer as information labels, or whether, as seems more likely, they had a regulatory function, being attached to cloths examined by official searchers of the company and judged to be dyed to a high enough standard to be put on the market."
"No.267 Fig.35 D.24mm//(?)24mm; second disc fragmentary. TB privy mark (slightly double struck)//shield with chevron engrailed, three madderbags, ...OC... around"

Looking at the picture of No.267 Fig.35 I think the TB privy mark could actually be TP on that seal with double struck effect being caused by a deep stamped 3 on the reverse as in this seal but in a different position. Difficult to decide if it belongs to the the earlier or later set of markings.

See Geoff Egan, Lead cloth seals and related items in the B.M., B.M. Occasional Paper 93, p.78, "Clothiers', weavers' & searchers' seals with privy marks etc." No.220, Fig.31 he tentatively dates as late eighteenth century to early nineteenth based on style but No.241, Fig.32 is judged to be "(?)sixteenth- to eighteenth-century." Both of these have a privy mark based on the number 4 resting on XX and an initial to the sides of the 4's extended vertical. There are differences in the style of the figures and border but it is hard to be certain of them, particularly on the average worn and incompletely struck seal. The same format of privy mark is found on London Dyers' Company seals, No.267, Fig.35 (ibid) and these are dated more closely from the late sixteenth- to seventeenth centuries. Assuming the entire date range is the safest if not the most definitive course of action, 1500 - 1825.

A complete picture would be appreciated groats :)