Lead Cloth Seals — Augsburg, Germany, with Pine Cone Heraldic Badge. 1500-1650.

Lead cloth seal— Augsburg, Germany, with pine
cone heraldic badge. 1500-1650.  18mm.

The little coin-like object that at first, I believed was a button, on closer inspection turned out to be a cloth seal — what I thought was a crumpled and compressed loop on the reverse was actually a letter 'A' with a crooked bar. 

What could be more Post-Medieval than that? 

I thought that it might take some time to research, but I could not have been more wrong. I asked Judy to Google 'lead cloth seal' just so that she could understand what such a thing was used for and what they looked like in general, and hey presto! 

There it was! Another example! City of Augsburg, Germany!

Arms of Augsburg

I love lead finds when they carry interesting designs. I had this down as a pineapple but it's not one of those - it's a pine cone - and what I believed might be Prince of Wales feathers on top, just a very stylised interpretation of the capital of a column. I also had the whole design upside down in my head. The pine cone is supposed to be viewed upright.

Judy loves it. She has already begun to construct the story that lies behind its presence in our fields. 

That's what finds are for, surely? They are food for the imagination.



References
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/717337
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/778443
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/589636
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/882758
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/233781