Cloth Seal, Alnage, County Portcullis, EB, Image & Found by S Bostelaar.
Found in Middelburg, Netherlands, 22mm.
155(o?) / EvB / > H < // crowned & chained portcullis of 3x3 lattice, ...SV...A inscription around
A Tudor alnage seal with the typical portcullis design used on their county alnage seals. See:- PROVENANCED LEADEN CLOTH SEALS by GEOFFREY EGAN, Sub-Department of Medieval Archaelogy, University College, University of London. submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 1987, p.51, "Crown-over-Portcullis Series of County Seals. This group is one of the largest recorded. The basic design is: crown over chained portcullis (usually with a lattice of 3X3 squares) with various abbreviations, usually for 'sigillum ulnagii pannorum venalium in comitatu... ' (seal of alnage of saleable cloths in the county of... ) in Lombardic letters. Stamps with Roman-letter legends have ER to the sides of a portcullis with a lattice of 3X3, 4X3, or 4X4 squares and an abbreviated version of 'sigillum pro comitatu... '(seal for the county of... ). The most common abbreviations are: (for Lombardic-letter legends) S'VLN'PAO'VEAL'I CO'...;(for Roman-letter legends) ... PRO-COMITA ... ...Even where (presumably genuine) portcullis seals had edge legends, few stamps registered fully. Those on which the place of origin is legible, seem, on present evidence, to have been in the minority. ... No portcullis seal is known with a reference to the subsidy."
The date could end in a small 0 or an incomplete 6 or 8 - Edward VI, Mary I or Elizabeth I.
