16th - 17th century lead cloth seals with merchant’s marks (No reserve price)

"16th–17th Century Lead Cloth Seals with Merchant’s Marks

Culture / Period: Post-M medieval, Dutch
Date / Period: 16th–17th century
Material: Lead
Dimensions: 15–28 mm
Condition: Good condition

No shipping outside the European Union. Due to complex export regulations concerning cultural goods, this item cannot be shipped outside the EU. Please ensure you have a delivery address within the European Union before placing a bid.

Provenance information:
Object Registration ID: 963

The current owner (S.N.J. S.) purchased the group of cloth seals with merchant’s marks from IL vd BC in Zoetermeer, The Netherlands.

The previous owner, IL vd BC from Zoetermeer, stated that the objects had been in his collection since the 1990s.

According to the previous owner, the objects had previously been in a private collection in The Netherlands since the 1990s.

No further information concerning the earlier ownership history of the objects was available from the previous owner.

Background Information:
Lead cloth seals, known in Dutch as lakenloden, formed an important part of the regulated textile industry of the 16th and 17th centuries. These small seals were attached to pieces of cloth during production, inspection or trade and could serve as evidence of origin, quality control or other stages within the manufacturing process.

The examples in this group bear individual marks and monogram-like devices. Such signs are generally referred to as merchant’s marks, house marks or privy marks and could be associated with producers, merchants or particular stages of textile processing and inspection. Without a documented archaeological context or securely identified parallels, the individual marks on these seals cannot be attributed to specific persons or workshops.

Textile manufacture was one of the major industries of the early modern Netherlands. Centres such as Leiden developed highly organised systems of specialised production, employing large numbers of spinners, weavers, fullers, dyers, finishers, inspectors and merchants. Finished textiles were distributed through extensive commercial networks across the Dutch Republic and throughout the European Union.

These seals therefore represent the administrative and commercial infrastructure behind the flourishing textile trade. Originally attached to valuable lengths of cloth, they travelled together with the merchandise before being removed or discarded. As surviving objects of this system, they provide a tangible connection to the craftsmen, merchants and organised trade networks that formed an important part of economic life in the 16th- and 17th-century Netherlands."