MEDIEVAL SEAL MATRIX

1200

Medieval cast lead-alloy lozenge-shaped personal seal matrix. On the front is a recessed design of an eight petalled flower with a central pellet, filling the central field. The legend is within line borders and reads +S':WILL'I de. [...]OTITON, Seal of William of ?otiton. The back is plain apart from a solid semi-cicular lug at the top point opposite the start of the legend. It is 21.9mm long, 18.6mm wide, 6.2mm thick including the lug, 2.4mm excluding the lug; it weighs 5.57 grams.This is a personal seal of the 13th century. The missing letter is possibly a retrograde capital T, a retrograde C or a capital D. The other letters are well formed and the use of upper and lower case is carefully chosen. It could therefore be a capital T even though it is of a different style than the other T's, bioth styles were used at this period and the mix could signify that this is a more important capital. Alternatively the fine engraving might suggest it is not retrograde but is a capital D with the back bar missing. No place called Dotiton,Totiton or Cotition or anything similar was located in the usual sources, Doddington is nearby but this spelling/change in the placename is not known in early documents, where it is also called Durborough, and its nearness may be chance.