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Description: | Incomplete Post Medieval lead-alloy cloth seal for cloth made in Tiverton, Devon. About two thirds of one of the pair of discs survives with its central stud on the back. The stud was pushed through a hole in the other disk and stamped flat. The other disk and the rectangular tab joining the pair is missing. The surviving disk is stamped with an central design of a human foot over a elongated 4 with an F below the toes of the foot an unclear S under the heel all within a circular beaded border. The outer border and legend is mostly missing but the remaining part reads: [...]RIDG[...]. The stub on the other face is stamped with part of an unclear central design, possibly lettering again within a beaded border and with a legend around the edge. The only part of the legend that survives reads TH or EH, the remainder would have been on the missing disk. It is now 22.2mm across by 19.1mm wide and 2.3mm thick including the stub, it weighs 4.35 grams.Paul Cannon comments: I believe this seal relates to the town of Tiverton in Devon. It is one of a series of cloth seals all having the merchant's mark which incorporates a human foot and the letters SF. The mark is a pun on the name Samuel Foote. He was a significant merchant in the town who died in 1691. Several seals are known which include this merchant's mark but also have other names on them namely Robert Burridge (1647-1717), Samuel Burridge (1678-1734), Samuel Foote's grandson, and Benjamin Dickinson.For a brief mention of them see http://tivertoncivicsoc.org.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/microsoft-word-full-newsletter-68-may-2008.pdf pp 9 & 10. According to this they first came to light in the 1990s in Holland and Germany. For an example of the Benjamin Dickinson seal see http://wf4.nl/Engels/paginaTheo/theolakenloodengels.htm .The seal found in Somerset contains enough surviving inscription to indicate that it relates to Robert or Samuel Burridge.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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CLOTH SEAL
Incomplete Post Medieval lead-alloy Somerset…
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