Russian Cloth Seals in Britain

A Guide to Identification, Usage and Anglo-Russian Trade in the 18th and 19th Centuries

John Sullivan

• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781842179185
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Archéologie

For many decades in the 18th and 19th centuries, Russia was the world's greatest exporter of flax and hemp and Great Britain its major customer. Most studies of flax and hemp and their associated industries have hitherto concentrated on the economic and historical events surrounding the rise and fall of these industries in Britain. This book is based on a large body of new material consisting of lead-alloy seals that were attached to bundles of flax and hemp exported from Russia and aims chiefly to describe the different seals that were used and to explain the reasons why they were employed. It offers a short history of their use, a guide to their identification and a catalogue of items recovered in Britain, opening up a valuable new source of material for analysing a different aspect of the history of commercial relations between Russia and Britain and providing assistance for finders and museum curators in identifying and deciphering these objects correctly. The text guides the reader through the different types of seal so far recorded using illustrations, transliterations of the Cyrillic texts found on the seals and explanatory tables, as well as a comprehensive catalogue. Analysis is conducted of the information found in the seals. This information provides us with a picture of the manner in which the export of these products from Russia to Britain was handled and allows us to make comparisons over different periods of time and to analyse the different systems of quality control used. It also enables us to record the geographical distribution of Russian ports used for the export of flax and hemp to the UK, where the spread of their distribution tells us something of the redistribution of these imports and provides an understanding of the use to which their by-products were put as part of the agricultural practices of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Part One: Lead seals of Russian origin

5. Russian seals and their characteristics

Over 1000 Russian seals, fulfilling different functions, have been recorded in the museums of Scotland and England and in the private collections of metal detector users or landowners. All but approximately 6% had clear connections with the flax and hemp trade but a small number of others might still be confirmed to be flax or hemp seals, though there is nothing stamped on them that would permit us at present to identify a conclusive link with any particular trade. A number of undated seals (3%) are linked with the fur trade, four are railway seals with dates between 1902 and 1909 and one is associated with the import of balsam.

Flax seals on which the date can be read with certainty range from the 1740s to the start of the 20th century. The seal bearing the earliest legible date (1741) is housed in the Museum of London collection. The latest flax seal so far recorded has the date 1902 and is housed in North-East Fife Museums collection.

It is important to recognise that what is being analysed and described here is not so much the appearance of the seals but their existence as evidence of the manner in which quality control was handled. This evidence is set out in a very compressed form and shows the diversity in the way information has been presented at different Russian ports over the last 250 years.

Given that on the seals there is no obviously dominant side which one might designate as the obverse, the side bearing the surname of the desyatnik has been designated the obverse and the one carrying the date the reverse. When identifying and categorising a given lead-alloy seal it is necessary first to ascertain its size and the number of lines stamped on each side. Having then taken account of the damage the seal might have suffered, especially at its outer edges, which may have resulted in the loss of one or more lines, the letters and digits stamped on the seal should be identified, along with any points (full stops) or colons occurring with them. The latter provide some guidance on what letters in a name are likely to represent initials of a forename or patronymic rather than the surname itself. They also help identify which parts of a series of letters and digits might be grouped together.

5.1. Flax and hemp bundle seals

Within two decades of their first appearance the dimensions and weight of the seals had changed, and the information presented on them became more detailed. The first modifications affected not only the ...