Belgian, Sugar Bag Seal, Wittouck

Belgian, Wittouck, Selzeate Star Seal, Image & Found by Peter Brown.

Found in Hertfordshire, 18mm.

Lead bag seal with 5 pointed star in centre front & reverse
SELZAETE around the star on one side and P. ?I?TOUCK on the other (WITTOUCK).
Selzaete is a Belgian town near Ghent. (The small town of Zelzate is in East Flanders, close to the Dutch-Belgian border.)

With the help of another seal of the same type:-
Both sides have a circular border of fused pellets at the centre of which is a five pointed star with a smaller one beneath it. In line with this smaller star, curved around the inside of the fused pellet border are the letters SELZAETE on one face of the seal and P.WITTOUCK on the other.

Selzeate or Selzate or Zelzate is a town in Belgium where Paul and Franz Wittouck owned a sugar business. Not much information is available but the following postcards show it existed :- ZELDZAME - ** ZELZATE - SELZAETE - SUCRERIE WITTOUCK ** SUGAR FACTORY - SUKERFAB and ZELZATE. Suikerfabriek Wittouck.
The following extract from Raffinerie Tirlemontoise shows that the Wittocks were major players in the sugar business:-
"On 17 September 1887 Raffinerie Tirlemontoise becomes a limited company and in 1894, Paul and Franz Wittouck, the owners of the sugar factory in Wanze, purchase Raffinerie Tirlemontoise from the Vinckenbosch family."

From Philippe Lanez, - "For the town, two spelling existing : SELZAETE as on the seal and ZELZAETE more common nowadays. - delcampe.net -
(Zelzate) Selzaete. Suikerfabriek Wittouck. La Sucrerie Wittouck.