BSG.CS.00940 — Cloth Seal, Clothier's Seal, Tiverton, James Pulling

Found near 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands (in a cornfield thought to contain an 18th century waste dump from the City), 32mm.

22 // figure 4 resting on foot G O to sides, JAMES PULLING.TIVERTON around

This is a cloth seal from Tiverton in Devon, Evans Type 4.4.1.*. This seal is also recorded as No.70 Fig.7 p.406, Maunder, P., Tiverton Cloth: The Story of the Town's Woollen Trade 1475 - 1815. The large amount of Tiverton serge produced was almost entirely exported to the Continent where many cloth seals have been recovered, mostly bearing the distinctive 4 impaled foot privy mark of Samuel Foote. On this seal it looks more like the foot is wearing a boot.

*A helpful classification system for these seals, devised by Jane Evans, can be found as an appendix to Peter Maunder’s comprehensive history of the Tiverton cloth trade.

The fullest collection of Tiverton cloth seals (about thirty) is on permanent display in Tiverton Museum.