Cloth seal
Cloth seals are seal-like seals made of lead attached to cloth and other textile fabrics from the Middle Ages to the 18th century as evidence of a quality test . They are often represented in archaeological finds and represent an important source for researching production sites, trading centers and goods traffic routes.
history
Since the 13th century, guild statutes and trade regulations regulated by the authorities contain regulations on the affixing of hallmarks . It was in the interests of the municipalities and guilds to ensure a certain quality standard. Testing and labeling was necessary wherever the trade intervened between producer and consumer. The oldest surviving cloth seals are of Dutch origin and date from the 13th and 14th centuries. Many finds from the late Middle Ages also point to Dutch textile centers, whereby a shift from the Flemish to the Dutch trading centers can be observed. The importance of the cloth seals becomes clear from how high the penalties (including death sentences) were, which were carried out in the Middle Ages and early modern times for the abuse and forgery of stamps. The extent of the seal is illustrated by figures from the West Flanders cloth trade center of Ypres , where in the 14th century an average of over 61,000 cloth seals and more than 13 punch pliers were used annually. In the 16th century, German seals also increased, whereby it should be noted that the year numbers occasionally given in the brand image relate more to the date of an underlying ordinance than to that of the issue. The boom in the cloth-making industry, which culminated in the decades around 1600, is also reflected in the statistics of cloth seal finds, which reached a quantitative peak in the 17th century. For the 18th century, their number declined rapidly.
Form and attachment
Cloth seals in the form of so-called disc pin seals are an invention of the Middle Ages. The blank consists of two disks connected to one another by a web, one of which has a (sometimes double) pin which, after being pushed through the fabric hem, fits into the hole in the counter disk when the seal is folded. After the embossing process - with pliers or punch - the holding together of these discs with the cloth clamped between them cannot be released without destruction. The material of the cloth seals is consistently the soft and insensitive lead. Bales of fabric were often sealed with more than one lead when, for example, the cloth shearers (who smoothed the surface of the woven cloth) or dyers had checked. Most seals have a diameter of 2 to 3 cm, the largest examples, like the one shown here, over 6 cm.
The process of irreversible fastening by sealing was done with a forged stamp, therefore the Middle Low German term for it is also "stalen" and was an act of sovereignty, so to speak, whose abuse, for example through forgery, was punishable by high penalties. The name of the London Stalhof is presumably derived from this marking made here.
Types
The embossed motifs allow conclusions to be drawn about the function of the respective seal types:
- City arms and certain terms (e.g. stael ) indicate the importance of the seal as proof of quality control by the authorities of the local guilds. The examiners were producers ( cloth makers , dyers) or traders ( wall tailors ). The dimensions, thread count, quality and intensity of the coloring could be checked.
- House brands or initials usually refer (as proof of origin) to the manufacturer, less often (as proof of ownership) to the dealer. The manufacturer identification was important in order to determine the originator.
- English coats of arms and profile heads of English rulers show corresponding tax seals, which up to 1728 came with British cloths in trading ports on the German North Sea coast.
- Manufactory and factory marks have mainly used word marks since the 18th century.
- Additional markings such as punched-in numbers or certain scratched bar codes on the back of the seals marked certain quantities, mainly length specifications.
- Linen was also tested, but the evidence was not sealed with a cloth , but (especially in the 18th century) with a color imprint made directly on the woven goods with wooden printing blocks ( leg stamps ).
distribution
The use of lead cloth seals was widespread throughout Europe, but the complexes of finds around the North Sea have been best researched. Most of the finds of cloth seals were naturally made in trading towns. But there are also individual cases in the country and in small towns that show that bale goods are processed by tailors and other end users. Unsealed cloth was normally not allowed to be traded in large cities (with powerful guilds).
See also
literature
- Sven Schütte: Cloth seals as urban symbols. The Göttingen case study . In: Anzeiger des Germanisches Nationalmuseum . 1993, ISSN 0341-8383 , p. 135-141 .
- Dieter Hittinger: Cloth seals. Trademark of the late Middle Ages and modern times from the north German coastal area . Shaker, Aachen 2008, ISBN 978-3-8322-7826-7 (dissertation, University of Bamberg 2008. With numerous redrawings and a comprehensive list of literature).
- Dieter Hittinger: Evaluation of the cloth seal finds from the Teerhof excavation . In: Dieter Bischop (Hrsg.): Bremer Archäologische Blätter . NF 7, 2008, ISSN 0068-0907 , p. 111-144 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Reinhold Kaiser. Falsifications of hallmarks as economic offenses in the late medieval cloth trade , in: Fälchungen im Mittelalter, Part V., (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Schriften, Vol. 33.5), Hanover 1988, pp. 732-752.
- ^ Karl Schiller and August Lübben: Middle Low German Dictionary , Vol. 4, 1878 (also reprinted 1969), pp. 355–357.
- ↑ For this see "Alnage" in the English language Wikipedia : Alnage