Cloth Seal, Clothier's Seal, Exeter?, Londres, Image & Found by José de Sousa.
Found near Lisbon, Portugal, 45.15 x 24.92mm.
Blank // 32 in square border // LONDRE(S) in beaded circular border
This seal has been tentatively identified as a clothier's seal from Exeter due to the distinctive square border around the number. See BSG.CS.01004 also found in Portugal.
The French rendering of London is interesting.
From Peter Maunder, "There was a substantial Portuguese serge trade from Exeter through much of the eighteenth century and well into the first half of the nineteenth century too. However the "Londres" is, as you say, a puzzle, I have not seen that before."
From Mike Patrick, "It is true that on seeing the said "LONDRES" seal, my first thought was to remark on it's close similarity with the design of known Exeter seals, but I would hesitate to attribute to Exeter just on the basis of the square frame. There are numerous 4-part Exeter seals, with a smaller diameter part as the rivet-section & a square frame surrounding numerals - e.g. among those with "unusual" lengths I have seen:
James WHITE, EXON / [38]
????? KENNAWAY / [4]
Thomas Huckell LEE / [54]
GIBBS, GRANGER & BANFILL / [60]
It is difficult to say more without knowing who manufactured the seals and who ordered and fixed them.
In the first half of the nineteenth century UPCOTT of Cullompton was sending reasonable amounts of cloth to Lisbon by way of LONDON. Much of their fulling was apparently done by BOWRING of Exeter."
From Jane Evans, "The general look of the seal could be thought of as similar to Exeter ones, but the single word 'LONDRES' strikes me as very odd, especially written alone straight across the disc.
I am not aware of others with the number '32'. The nearest is '32½' on a Dutch Artefacts website seal of BARINGS SHORT & COLE, trading to Southern Europe from Exeter 1788 to 1801, which, unusually for Exeter, is a two-part seal.
On balance, I would not think it is an Exeter seal as the merchants there seemed to take a pride in putting their names on seals. Here, for some reason, the chap who traded it did not want his own name associated with it."
From further input from Peter Maunder & Jane Evans it was felt that seal could possibly be for estamine serge as 32 yards was the standard length of an estamine, which was the serge type typically sent from Exeter to Portugal in the later eighteenth century and into the early nineteenth century. These goods were made in Tiverton, Cullompton, Exeter and no doubt elsewhere at this period.