Large seal of the City of Stralsund in the shape of a cog

• Stralsund 1329
• seal wax, scraps of fabric ribbons, metal can with decorated lid
• separated from a deed (from the estate of the retiree L. Otto, 1892)
• diameter: 10 cm

The seal of the City of Stralsund, known as 'de koggen", the cog, is the fourth seal known to have been introduced inside of 70 years; it draws on the image of an ocean-going merchant ship to symbolise the city by the straits. It epitomises the qualities attributed to Stralsund and its inhabitants by Thomas Kantzow, a 16th-century chronicler of Pomerania, who claimed that the locals only possessed "mercantile and maritime persuasions".

The seal is a masterpiece of medieval signet making and possesses immense importance as a testimony to the history of art and culture. It shows a clinker-built cog with overlapping hull planks at full speed, its square sail billowing, a straight stem and a tail rudder. Standing in front of a fort-like stern superstructure, the helmsman is shown oversized relative to the overall scale. He wears clothing that protects him against the wind and the weather.

Rotgherus, a goldsmith from Stralsund, manufactures the seal stamp.