File:SouthSeaCompany TradeLabel.png

A trading label of the South Sea Company, showing the Company's armorials with Latin motto: In Te Domine Speravi ("In thee O Lord do I put my trust"), Psalm 70/71, verse 1, King James rendering. Text: Sarga Finissima de Inglatierra de la Nueva Fabrica ("The finest serge (fabric) of England of the the new fabric/making(?)") and Rio de Londres ("River of London"?). The letters below "S S & E C" circumscribing a seal are given differently as "S S & F G" on the lid of a surviving mother-of-pearl gaming box together the Company's arms, which was ordered from Canton, probably circa 1725, by some of the directors of the South Sea Company. (Neal, Bill, Chinese mother-of-pearl gaming counters[1]) The box contains several gaming counters similarly marked, one in the shape of oriental dragon's mouths. They may therefore stand for "South Sea and Fishery Company", the official name of the Company being "The Governor and Company of the Merchants of Great Britain, Trading to the South Seas and other parts of America, and for the Encouragement of Fishing". See also: image of "Cloth Seal, Company, 1711 - 1853, South Seas & Fisheries Company, found at Terminal Port, Portobelo, Panama, 37mm X 53mm, published at basseals.org[2]. Catalogue entry: "Wheel-like, radiating motif with + in centre, and crown S S & F C around in the outer ring. See Geoff Egan, M.12 Fig.48 'Lead cloth seals and related items in the B.M.' (B.M.occ.papers 93)...The London finds are presumably accidental losses from cloths being dyed at the side of the Thames for the Company prior to export .... Other seals for this Company have been found in Texas and Tierra del Fuego...See also figure 2.11 Egan, G., 1991, Industry and Economics on the Medieval and later London Waterfront. In G.L. Good et al. (eds.), Waterfront Archaeology, Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Waterfront Archaeology held at Bristol 23-26 September 1988 (Council for British Archaeology Research Report 74), 9-18.