Published: 2022-12-08

Broadcloth marking stamps from Toruń — a contribution to the history of textile dyeing in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 17th century

Tomasz Maćkowski
Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej
Section: Communiques
DOI https://doi.org/10.23858/KHKM70.2022.3.003

Abstract

The aim of the current paper is to present and correctly describe stamps used for marking broadcloth, objects of extreme rarity on an European scale, which are held in the
Regional Museum in Toruń. Their hitherto identification as employed to indicate the quality of broadcloth is only partially correct, since they were in possession not only
of the broadcloth makers, but of the dyers. This is confirmed by a characteristic name contained in the stamp inscriptions: ENKEL STAEL, ANDERTHALB STAEL or DOBBELT
STAEL. A more detailed characterization of these objects is possible through analogies with documents and material sources from the Gdańsk area, where a similar system of marking dyed broadcloth began to function in the year 1600. The beginning of the Toruń stamps’ period of use should be linked with the foundation, in 1607, of a joint-stock company known as the “Handels-Societat”, which dealt in, among others, textile dyeing.

Keywords:

“Stahl” matrices, Toruń, Gdańsk, 17 th c., history of dyeing

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Maćkowski, T. (2022). Broadcloth marking stamps from Toruń — a contribution to the history of textile dyeing in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 17th century. Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej, 70(3), 333–346. https://doi.org/10.23858/KHKM70.2022.3.003

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