cloth-seal
- Museum number
- SLSeals.181
- Description
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Cloth-mark; lead; obverse: arms of Strasbourg: bend on field of scrolling S's, baton to each side; enclosed in circular band; inscribed; reverse: arms of Gartner: bend and two grenades fired at both ends; fleur-de-lis between two S's above and date below, all within wreath.
- Production date
- 1699
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 36 - 39 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- The legend is in German because the city was considered part of Germany until 1681, when it was united with France. The first arms are a version of those of Strasbourg, and the second are claimed to be the family arms of Gartner in accession records (this is unconfirmed). The hatching is probably the monochrome convention for the heraldic gûles (red).
This thick, heavy seal was presumably for a heavy-garde cloth. With its attractive, ornately engraved devices it may have come to the founding collection of the Museum as an item of interest without having been lost in the ground. Strasbourg produced linen-warp serges, bays, says, and tapestry (Kerridge 1985, 7, 96 and 221-3); the last may be appropriate for such a large and elaborate seal. Compare the `broad Stawsbrough linen` in the 1660 customs rates on imports (Statute 12 Car. II c4; Montgomery 1984, 278).
Regulations for sealing fustians were introduced in the city in 1587, and continued into the eighteenth century (Wadsworth & Mann 1965, 69).
Other Strasbourg seals found in England include examples dated betweem 1605 and 1715; one from near Kendal is for the year 1701.
(Egan 1994)
- Location
- On display (G46/dc15)
- Exhibition history
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Exhibited:
1978 11 Sep-22 Oct, Llangollen, European Centre for Folk Studies, Spinning a Yarn
- Acquisition date
- 1753
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- SLSeals.181
