Cloth seal

This cloth seal of lead, found in Exeter but not specifically provenanced, shows the form a cloth seal took before it was attached to a cloth. When a cloth was to be sealed, the central bar was folded and the projecting lug at one end was threaded through the hole in the other. The name of the town or individual on the seal was impressed into the lead as the seal was squeezed tight. The seal therefore shows a place at which the sealing of cloth was carried out.

Acknowledgments: RAM Museum