About this objectBaltic lead seal (30mm diameter) dating from the 1750s-1820s (2 seals). Cromarty was a centre for the manufacture of hemp sacking and rope during the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century. These lead seals, dated in Cyrillic script, would have been attached to the bales of raw hemp imported from Russian ports, and were later discarded by the sacking manufacturers in Cromarty. They are also known as Bracker's seals, after the job title of the Russian port official who graded the hemp according to its quality.
