Late 1700's Bale Seal from English Cloth Merchant found in the colonies!

[Donnie B]

I had been waiting on a nice relic to pose with this map. I got out with Danny LaMontagne and Dave Wise this past Sunday for some colonial cellar hole digging. Danny had the hot coil and made some finds that make you "green" :envious:! I have found many bale seals in the past but they were all from the late 1880's to the early 1900's. All of those were used by railroads except for one "pony express" seal.

Sunday, I found another really special relic. I dug a bale seal from the late 1700's! :shocked05:John & Jeremiah Naylor were cloth merchants in Wakefield, England. This bale seal was used to guarantee quality to the importer in the colonies. One of these seals has been archaeologically dated to circa 1775 - 1800. The hand enscribed numerals and symbols on the reverse were written in the late 1700's. How cool is that? 65063I would really like to know what the 18th Century hand written letters and numbers mean on the seal. I can only assume that it was some sort of identification or an inventory of the cloth in the shipment.6506465065

[Bucknut]

I like that a lot! Hand writing from 225 or so years ago...yeah that's cool!

[Digger_O'Dell]

Very cool! Love some of those old seals with the nice stamps kn them. The writing is a big plus! Have a hunch it was probably to match a manifest, and with some heavy research, I bet you can probably find a record of it somewhere. My guess would be to start looking at 1794 judging by the 94 on the back.

[Donnie B]

Very cool! Love some of those old seals with the nice stamps kn them. The writing is a big plus! Have a hunch it was probably to match a manifest, and with some heavy research, I bet you can probably find a record of it somewhere. My guess would be to start looking at 1794 judging by the 94 on the back.

Thanks! I didn't notice that it could be "94." I can think of two different wordings as follows:

JJXO / 70 7
99XO / 70 7

Perhaps it could be 94XO / 70 7.

The "X" has a bar on the top and bottom. It's a mystery wrapped inside of an enigma.

[Digger_O'Dell]

Bottom number looks like 705 zoomed in.

[Tony Two-Cent]

That is by far the coolest bale seal I've ever seen! How, what an amazing piece of history! Fascinating that you were able to date it and identify it to the precise merchant.

:congrats:

[rharris]

Very Very cool. Anything from this time period is always cool, but that thing is special!
Congrats!

[OxShoeDrew]

I've never found one anywhere near that big!! Or ornate! Great find, Donnie! :wow:

[Lodge Scent]

A most excellent find !

[Donnie B]

That is by far the coolest bale seal I've ever seen! How, what an amazing piece of history! Fascinating that you were able to date it and identify it to the precise merchant.

:congrats:

I actually got lucky in the identification part. Dave Wise dug one of these up several years. He only found the "front" of the seal but his lettering is all there. Here is a pic of the one Dave dug up.65066

[Ken C]

That seal is beautiful! I love things that are "sail ship" themed. :beerbuddy:

[The Rebel]

Amazing! Those numbers must be inventory or shipping info.

[del]

Great recovery Donnie and it cleaned up nicely !

[calabash digger]

You are the man!

[aloldstuff]

Biggest bale seal I have ever seen. Pretty sure the coded lettering on the back will lead to the Templar treasure. :lol:

[Noah]

All I can say is WOW! :wow: