Amazing British Army lead bale seal

[Relicific]

Yesterday I decided to go on a short woods hunt despite the crazy heat and humidity.
One hour into my hunt I was drenched in sweat and was about to call it quits when I got a perfect signal with my Deus.
When I first saw it I could make out the cannons and thought military button, but quickly ruled that out cause of the size, heaviness and of course no shank.
Instead what I have here is a British Army Board of Ordnance cloth seal,( lead seal attached to cloth)
The B.O. was charged with supplying weapons, ammo and equipment to the British Army.
The broad arrow was used in England apparently from the mid 16th century
to mark objects purchased from the monarch and also to indicate Gov property
and so was the Boards mark.
Issues in the Crimean war brought about
the boards demise in 1855.
An inch in diameter, this Army seal was used
as a security measure, while pressed into cloth to show if it had been tampered with.
An exact duplicate of this early cloth seal
was unearthed at an archeological dig in Tasmania and is in a permanent exhibition
at the Queen Victoria Museum there.
Here’s the link
https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/article/?id=7318
And
Cloth Seal, Broad Arrow, Board of Ordnance

Sent from my iPhone

 

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[dirtlooter]

Wow, that is an awesome find and well worth the trouble and sweat that you went thru to get it. a stunning find of history for sure and super high in the cool factor. if that didn't put a smile on your face, nothing will! congrats

 

[Relicific]

Wow, that is an awesome find and well worth the trouble and sweat that you went thru to get it. a stunning find of history for sure and super high in the cool factor. if that didn't put a smile on your face, nothing will! congrats

Thanks Dirtlooter, yes I love this being my first seal of any kind.
So much History behind it.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Awesome bale seal!

I have tons of them, but not one as historic as yours...congratulations!

 

[Ahab8]

Damn dude that thing is incredible!

 

[toasted]

Congrats. I only have one partial cloth seal from that period and not nearly as nice as yours. Mine too has hand etched marks in the back of it which I think further helped to identify what was being sealed or how much cloth remained

 

[Aureus]

That's a beauty for sure! Great find!

 

[Rookster]

Super find. Congrats

 

[trdking]

OUTSTANDING to say the least.

 

[Iron Patch]

I can't think of what would be a better or more interesting lead seal to dig, and I'd surely rather that over most Artillery buttons too.... had to say most because there's a few early rare British ones I have in my head that I'd have to take. Heck I love my large London ship seal from a couple of years back and I don't even have a history to go with it, so yours would easily be a fav. for me, like I'm sure it already is for you.

 

[Relicific]

Damn dude that thing is incredible!

Thanks Ahab

 

[Relicific]

Congrats. I only have one partial cloth seal from that period and not nearly as nice as yours. Mine too has hand etched marks in the back of it which I think further helped to identify what was being sealed or how much cloth remained

Yes I love that fact that it has some etched marks on it.

 

[Relicific]

That's a beauty for sure! Great find!

Tks Aureus

 

[Relicific]

OUTSTANDING to say the least.

Thank you Trdking

 

[Relicific]

I can't think of what would be a better or more interesting lead seal to dig, and I'd surely rather that over most Artillery buttons too.... had to say most because there's a few early rare British ones I have in my head that I'd have to take. Heck I love my large London ship seal from a couple of years back and I don't even have a history to go with it, so yours would easily be a fav. for me, like I'm sure it already is for you.

Oh ya just love the history behind this cloth seal.
It would be a treat to see your Lobdon ship seal.
Tks Iron patch

 

[Relicific]

Awesome bale seal!

I have tons of them, but not one as historic as yours...congratulations!

Thank you Sir

 

[Iron Patch]

Oh ya just love the history behind this cloth seal.
It would be a treat to see your Lobdon ship seal.
Tks Iron patch

Can't tell the size from the picture, but is bigger than what we usually find.

 

[oyat]

Amazing find and amazing story behind it

 

[Relicific]

Can't tell the size from the picture, but is bigger than what we usually find.

Wow that’s a cool London seal.
I see the ship with flags.

 

[BuckleBoy]

Outstanding find.