16th - 17th century lead cloth seals, incl. seal of the city Leiden (No reserve price)

"16th–17th Century Lead Cloth Seals – Including Seal of the City of Leiden

Culture / Period: Post-Medieval, Dutch
Date / Period: 16th–17th century
Material: Lead
Dimensions: 17–26 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: 965

The current owner (S.N.J. S.) purchased the group of cloth seals 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, were attached to textiles as part of the organised system of production, inspection and commerce that characterised the early modern textile industry. Depending on their function, stamped marks could indicate origin, quality, dimensions or inspection, while others carried marks associated with merchants, producers or workshops.

This group includes a cloth seal of the city of Leiden, alongside examples bearing letters, numerals and monogram-like or house marks. One seal bears the Roman numeral XXIII. Leiden was one of the foremost textile-producing cities of the Dutch Republic, and its cloth industry operated under an organised system of production and quality control. Official seals helped identify textiles that had passed through this regulated commercial environment.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, Leiden's textile industry employed large numbers of specialised workers, including spinners, weavers, fullers, dyers, finishers and inspectors. Finished textiles entered extensive trading networks and were distributed throughout the Netherlands and across European markets. Cloth seals accompanied these textiles as practical evidence of the administrative and commercial systems behind their production and circulation.

Originally attached directly to lengths of cloth, these small lead seals provide tangible evidence of the craftsmen, inspectors and merchants involved in the flourishing early modern textile trade. The presence of a Leiden city seal gives the group a direct connection with one of the most important centres of textile manufacture in the 16th- and 17th-century Netherlands."