Casgliadau Arlein

Reverse. This impression derives from a double-faced lead matrix (now at the British Museum) which displays the holes through which attachment cords passed. Lane Poole suggests that it may have been a ‘coin-seal’, and that ‘the idea of using a leaden bull came from Rome, but that the engravers fell back upon a coin for a model of the lettering.’ The matrix was purchased at the sale of Walter Wilson’s effects in 1847, and was said to have been previously preserved in Italian collections.