Dear Kimberly, We have a collection of bale seals from 2 Dutch shipwrecks: Batavia 1629 and Vergulde Draeck 1656. They are illustrated in two British Archaeological Reports BAR SS 36 and BAR International Series 489. An authority on bale seals is Geoff Egan (Dept Medieval and Later Antiquities(British Museum, London). His latest book is: Lead Cloth Seals and related items in the British Museum. British Museum Occasional Paper 93, 1994. He has also published articles in Post-Medieval Archaeology. Bale seals have also been recovered from 15th to 17th century excavations in Amsterdam. If you want to send us an illustration of your seal we may be able to find a comparison in our collection. Yours sincerely Myra Stanbury Curator, Maritime Archaeology Jeremy Green Department of Maritime Archaeology Western Australian Maritime Museum Cliff Street FREMANTLE WA 6160 [log in to unmask] (61-9)4318440 (61-9)3355351 fax or (3357224) See us on the WWW at http://mm.wa.gov.au/Museum.html