Cloth Seal, Colchester, English Saye, Image & Found by Dave Hiddleston.
Found on Thames foreshore, 40mm, overall length 70mm.
Three coronets (trace of cross raguly between top two?) // ornate shield bearing cross raguly and three coronets, 16 18 to sides, fleur-de-lis ENGLISH fleur-de-lis COLCHESTER.SAYE around // missing // missing (rivet head bears partial design)
Two discs from a four-disc Colchester English community Say cloth seal. The missing large disc would have shown Colchester castle with a soldier standing in its doorway. See p.33 and No.38, Fig.15, Geoff Egan, British Museum Occasional Paper 93, Lead Cloth Seals & Related Items in the British Museum.
"The native English textile workers in Colchester, after finding themselves outclassed on the industrial front by the [Dutch] immigrants, eventually established their own corporation in 1618, their principal product being says (despite attempts to learn the manufacture of bays they never seem to have achieved a reasonable level of competence here). The four-part seals of these indigenous weavers are probably the most visually impressive of all those known from this country. Perhaps slightly later are two-part seals stamped from dies with the same devices but of markedly inferior engraving. These seals all bear the date of incorporation, 1618, and specify 'English' in the legend. Their overall appearance to contemporaries familiar with the Dutch-Colchester seals would, particularly with those of the two-part form, not be immediately differentiable unless the trouble was taken to read the legend. This potential for confusion may well have been quite deliberate - the English may not actually have intended to deceive, but they were entering the market with a product established by others, and imitation of the labels on the already successful product would presumably have helped sales. Say was used for ecclesiastical dress, cloak linings, aprons, and shirts." p.45, Egan, G. 1989. ‘Leaden seals for textiles – some archaeological evidence relating to fabrics and trade’, Costume, 23, 39-53.