French, Montauban, Rowers Lead Seal, Image & Found by Charles McLeod.
Found near Mobile Alabama USA, 1" x 7/8" with strap 1.5" x 7/8"
A two disc cloth seal showing four men in a rowing-boat with two stars and an arrow through a sphere above. On the reverse 780 above 34-1/2 has been scratched.
Mobile is a seaport which was settled in 1711 at the location the seal was found.
For a more complete seal held in the Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal Museum of Archaeology and History see the Fort Ville-Marie dig site. "BjFj-101.534, Lead, Trade, 4 X 2.43cm. France, 1642-1760, Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal Museum of Archaeology and History, Luc Bouvrette. Some goods, including cloth, were shipped to New France in bales bound with metal wire or rope. A bale seal would be attached, showing the merchant's name, its place of origin and sometimes the quantity and quality of the goods. This complete specimen is marked: : RES. A MONTAV... probably indicating that the bale was from Montauban, France. Clothing, blankets and cloth were used by the French, but were also popular trade goods with the Natives."
It is more likely that this two disc cloth seal was riveted directly onto the cloth itself in the usual manner for such seals.
From Philippe Lanez, The following translation of an article about Montauban must give us the clue to the drawing:
"The Revolution and the Empire had stopped almost completely industrial activity. In the Second Empire, a real revival; the factories, so important in the sixteenth century, disappear, it is true, but we are witnessing a return to a craft industry.
The 19th century marked a return to work at home. It is carried out by sargers, to the city and, even more, in the campaigns and up to Nègrepelisse. It is above all a winter job, used as a complement to field work.
The sarger manufactured the serge or rather the cadis; he went every Saturday to the city to seek the chain at the manufacturer, to whom it returned the manufactured part, and finishing: dyeing and crushing. The cadis were an old cloth that was no longer fashionable. Montauban had however continued to manufacture it and had secured the market traditionalist of Brittany: we mainly made blue cadis for the Bretons. We also made clothing for seafarers. Gradually, this Breton market was reduced with the abandonment of the regional costume; soon there was only the Glaziks (which in Breton means "blue"), who kept the blue suit in cadis; they lived in the region of Ploaré and Douarnenez in the North of the Bigouden region. Today, this market is completely extinguished."