File:Seal from Roxby cum Risby (FindID 477466).jpg

English: Lead-alloy seal impression. Shield-shaped plate (the shield is the normal heater shape) bearing a hammered impression in relief, consisting of an image and a legend above it. The image comprises a stag's head with spread antlers; between the antlers is a bird with long bill, neck thrown back and outstretched wings, probably a pelican as a type of (meaning an image representing) Christ. The legend above is rather clumsily spaced, and reads LELSu, the final character being in superscript; this can be translated as 'I am loyal'. There is a straight horizontal relief line above and below the legend.

Ken Jacobs kindly draws attention to a partial parallel for the image in Pateman 1980 (Collecting Seals, Whitehall Publications, p.44, SS11). This has a cross potent between the antlers but is otherwise similar. Pateman suggests a date of 1325-1375, presumably on lettering style. Pateman's version alludes to the legend of St Eustace, a 2^nd-century Roman soldier whose conversion was occasioned by his pursuit of a hart which, when brought to bay, bore a talking crucifix between its antlers which reproved him. This tale was popularized from c. 1260 by the collected hagiographies known as The Golden Legend, and in the 15^th-century became attached to St Hubert; it is perhaps best known today from Pisanello's painting in the National Gallery. The pelican may represent Christ, though linkage with the Eustace/Hubert tale is perhaps weakened by the use of this particular symbol. An interest in hunting might be adduced.

The image was made using a seal matrix of anonymous type, which are generally considered to date to the 14th century. The function is unknown, but the subsequent discovery nearby of another example of the same motif stamped on a triangular fragment of lead sheet (NLM-C218B8) suggests that it may have been a trial-piece or offcut fragment.

Height: 20.3mm, Width: 18mm, Thickness: 2mm, Weight: 3.99g.