The agency of branding and the location of value. Hallmarks and monograms in early modern tableware industries

Abstract

This article addresses early modern guild-based hallmarks from the perspective of modern branding. Although guilds could have firm-like functions and create ‘brand names’, collective marks at least in ‘strong guilds’ (on the continent) served a primarily socio-political function for small manufacturing masters who controlled and sanctioned branding practices themselves. While helping to solve problems of information asymmetry, the collective marks objectified product quality by locating it in the political standing and ‘quality’ of guild-based masters. The crucial shift at the end of the Ancien Régime involved the disappearance of this link between the status of urban ‘freemen’ and the cultural identity of their products.

Keywords:

• branding
• guilds
• hallmarks
• product quality
• labour

Notes

1. Moore and Reid, ‘Birth of Brand’, 419.

2. Ibid.; Hamilton and Lai, ‘Consumerism Without Capitalism’; Wengrow, ‘Prehistories of Commodity Branding’.

3. Aaker, ‘Dimensions of Brand Personality’, 347; Moore and Reid, ‘Birth of Brand’, 420–1, 429.

4. Moore and Reid, ‘Birth of Brand’, 428.

5. Wengrow, ‘Prehistories of Commodity Branding’. See also Hamilton and Lai, ‘Consumerism Without Capitalism’.

6. To date these terms are sometimes (and implicitly) considered synonymous in current literature.

7. Kotler, Keller and Cunningham, Marketing Management, 274.

8. Ibid. Cited in Moore and Reid, ‘Birth of Brand’, 421.

9. The terms ‘trade mark’, ‘brand’, ‘certification mark’ or ‘collective mark’ were not used in the early modern context. While guild regulations referred to ‘guild sign’ (ambachtsteken), ‘master sign’ (meesterteken) or ‘quality mark’ (keurmerk), the terms sign, mark and signature were used interchangeably for pottery. In most literature, ‘hallmark’ (and sometimes ‘trade mark’) is used to refer to the collective marks of guilds, while monogram is used to refer to individual or company marks on pottery.

10. Davis, ‘Between a Sign and a Brand’; Ginsburg, ‘“See Me, Feel Me”’.

11. De Munck, ‘Skills, Trust’; De Munck, ‘One Counter and Your Own Account’.

12. Nurnberg was one of the first cities to have a pewterers' guild and its regulations often served as an example for other cities. Mory, Oud tin, 21, 32, 73ff.

13. In the context of guilds, product quality was guarded both ex ante (by apprenticeship requirements and the obligation to produce a masterpiece) and ex post (with guild deans searching workshops or inspecting and marking the products of masters in the guild hall). Gustafsson, ‘Rise and Economic Behaviour’; Epstein, ‘Craft Guilds’; Berlin ‘“Broken All Into Pieces”’; Homer, ‘Pewterers Company’; Forbes, ‘Search, Immigration’; Wallis, ‘Controlling Commodities’; De Munck, Technologies of Learning.

14. For the most recent views on the economic functions of craft guilds (including additional references), see Epstein and Prak, Guilds, Innovation.

15. Munro, ‘Industrial Protectionism’; Munro, ‘Urban Regulation’; Richardson, ‘Tale of Two Theories’.

16. Richardson, ‘Brand Names’.

17. Merges, ‘From Medieval Guilds’.

18. Pfister, ‘Craft Guilds’.

19. Dubbe, Tin en tinnegieters, 99.

20. Banister, English Silver; Oman, English Domestic Silver, passim.

21. Mory, Oud tin, 36.

22. Mees, ‘“Op dat een yegelic weten mach”’, 93–4; Mory, Oud tin, 38. In Saxony the city mark and the makers’ mark did not merge, but they had to be stamped together (the one flanking the other).

23. Mory, Oud tin, 35.

24. Michaelis, Antique Pewter, 97.

25. Dubbe, Tin en tinnegieters, 59, 66–7.

26. See, e.g., Mutschelknauss, Die Entwicklung, 86–187; Schroder, National Trust Book, 17. The London Cutlers’ Company appears to have ruled that the wares were to be marked with the masters’ mark, so as to be able to sanction possible frauds. Welch, History of the Cutlers’ Company, 35, 107, 114, 118.

27. Bauduin, Colman and Goethals, Edelsmeedkunst in België, 14; Mees, ‘“Op dat een yegelic weten mach”’, 96; Mory, Oud tin, 35; Dubbe, Tin en tinnegieters, 59.

28. See, e.g., Schroder, National Trust Book, 17; Oman, English Domestic Silver, 196ff.

29. See, e.g., Bauduin, Colman and Goethals, Edelsmeedkunst in België, 13–15; Mees, ‘“Op dat een yegelic weten mach”’, 87ff.

30. Zilver uit de gouden eeuw van Antwerpen, 26–7; Mees, ‘“Op dat een yegelic weten mach”’, 92–3, 96–8; Dubbe, Tin en tinnegieters, 61, 63–5.

31. Mees, ‘“Op dat een yegelic weten mach”’, 98.

32. Mory, Oud tin, 37–8; Hintze, Die Deutschen Zinngiesser, 1–4.

33. Mees, ‘“Op dat een yegelic weten mach”’, 99.

34. Dubbe, Tin en tinnegieters, 61; Mory, Oud tin, 37–8; Hintze, Die Deutschen Zinngiesser, 1–4.

35. Cf. Gustafsson, ‘Rise and Economic Behaviour’; Berlin, ‘“Broken All Into Pieces”’.

36. Schechter, Historical Foundations; Wengrow, ‘Prehistories of Commodity Branding’, 25.

37. In current literature, they are in fact very difficult to situate. See, among others, Moore and Reid, ‘Birth of Brand’, 421, 430.

38. Homer, ‘Pewterers Company’, 101; Forbes, ‘Search, Immigration’.

39. See, e.g., Schroder, National Trust Book, 16.

40. Welch, History of the Worshipful Company, iii, 40; Oman, English Domestic Silver, 193ff; Mitchell, ‘Innovation’, 14; Homer, ‘Pewterers Company’.

41. Lis and Soly, ‘Export Industries’.

42. Massé, Pewter Plate, 44, 189, 191; Mutschelknauss, Die Entwicklung, 186–8; Chaffers, Gilda Aurifabrorum, 7; Chaffers, Hallmarks; Dubbe, Tin en tinnegieters, 59, 61; Clifford, ‘Paul de Lamerie’; Lanz, ‘Training and Workshop Practice’, 35; and Mitchell, ‘Innovation’, 6–8. The shift towards masters stamping their own wares was possibly accompanied by a shift from the city mark to a quality mark. Mory, Oud tin, 36.

43. Wiest, Die Entwicklung, chapter III, esp. 64–6, 69–70. See also Tebbe, Timann and Eser, Nürnberger Goldschmiedekunst, 14, 498; Mutschelknauss, Die Entwicklung, 186–8.

44. See, e.g., Wallis, ‘Controlling Commodities’, 91–2.

45. This is obviously not to say that the powers of guilds or companies were unchallenged. See, e.g., Forbes, ‘Search, Immigration’.

46. Mory, Oud tin, 35–8; Hintze, Die Deutschen Zinngiesser, 1–4.

47. Thijs, ‘De nijverheid’, 140.

48. The Antwerp potters were probably dominated by a few large ’potverkoopers’ (pot merchants), such as Hendrick Nouts, Servaas Wouters and Cornelis de Wael. Dumortier, Céramique de la Renaissance, 77.

49. De Munck, ‘La qualité du corporatisme’, 136–8. See also De Munck, ‘Skills, Trust’.

50. Pfister, ‘Craft Guilds’, 32–6.

51. Banister, English Silver, 66–72; Oman, English Domestic Silver, 202–3.

52. This company was to become an important factor in the emergence of the famous Sheffield cutlery and steel production in the eighteenth century. Unwin, ‘Development’. Thanks are due here to the anonymous referee of this journal.

53. Boone, ‘Droit de bourgeoisie’, and Boone, ‘“Cette frivole”’. See also Friedrichs, Early Modern City, 143–4; Barry, ‘Civility’, 186–7; Schwinges, Neubürger.

54. Wengrow, ‘Prehistories of Commodity Branding’, 20.

55. Massé, Pewter Plate, 32–3, 35–6; Banister, English Silver, 66–72; Oman, English Domestic Silver, 193ff; Van Deun, ‘Het Antwerpse tinnegietersambacht’.

56. See, e.g., Massé, Pewter Plate, 41, 190.

57. With regard to tin, there were generally three quality levels: (1) pure fine tin, with a maximum of about 2% copper or lead; (2) quality tin (keurtin) with a maximum of about 10% lead; and (3) a lower quality with up to 50% lead (Mory, Oud tin, 32; Dubbe, Tin en tinnegieters, 51–7.) Most ordinances, however stipulated what alloy was to be applied to whatever type of product (e.g., Massé, Pewter Plate, 32–6, 39–40). For example, in Leipzig around 1500, embossed dishes were to be made from pure fine tin, whereas jugs, jars, vessels and the like could contain a ratio of 1/10 lead (Mory, Oud tin, 32; see also Dubbe, Tin en tinnegieters, 51–7). Beginning in the seventeenth century, some governments tried to enforce uniform rules (Mory, Oud tin, 32). Although the alloys of silver and gold may have been more uniform, different standards – linked to different types of products – are recorded for these sectors as well (see, e.g., Forbes, Hallmark, 16, 33, 53; Chaffers, Hallmarks, 2–7; Tebbe et al., Nürnberger Goldschmiedekunst, 36ff; Zilver uit de gouden eeuw van Antwerpen, 26; Bauduin, Colman and Goethals, Edelsmeedkunst in België, 11).

58. De Munck, Technologies of Learning, chapters 6.3 and 6.4. See also De Munck, ‘La qualité du corporatisme’ and De Munck, ‘Skills, Trust’.

59. See, e.g., Funke, Die Entwicklung, part I, chapters I–IV, esp. 62–7.

60. They refer to an ‘Antwerp style’, a ‘Faenza style’ and similar styles. Moreover, guilds could standardise production without prescribing trade marks. See, e.g., Lievois, ‘De Gentse pottenbakkersnering’.

61. See, e.g., Dumortier, Céramique de la Renaissance, 74.

62. Funke, Die Entwicklung, 39, 52–3 and 56–7.

63. Where guilds existed, imitation could be addressed by creating a trade mark and the concomitant search and sanction mechanisms – as was the case with the potters’ guild in Bergen op Zoom at the end of the Ancien Régime. Anticipating the plan of two former journeymen to start their own manufacture outside the city, the potters of Bergen op Zoom devised a simple mark in order to distinguish their products from the similar products of the two moonlighters (who obviously knew the secrets of the trade). Slootmans, Tussen hete vuren, I, 121–3 and II, 17–19.

64. See, e.g., Amos, ‘“Somme Lordes”’. See also Bromley and Child, Armorial Bearings.

65. Dangis, Oud tin, 27, 64; Mory, Oud tin, 21; Génard, Wapenboek, plate XXII/9.

66. The lilypot refers to the Virgin Mary, the patroness. Michaelis, Antique Pewter, 98–9; Welch, History of the Worshipful Company, 39. The strykes of tin in the company’s arms appear to have been ingots of tin.

67. In England, the Tudor rose and crown clearly refer to the central authorities, as did the leopard’s head and the lion passant on silver. Banister, English Silver, 66–72; Oman, English Domestic Silver, 193ff.

68. Mory, Oud tin, 21.

69. De Munck, ‘From Religious Devotion’.

70. See, e.g., Génard, Wapenboeck.

71. On this point, I am inspired by Latour, Iconoclash, and ‘From Realpolitik to Dingpolitik’. For Bruno Latour, politics is more than the representation of opinions by a group of professional politicians in parliaments and congresses. Instead, it must be seen as including other arenas (e.g., laboratories, supermarkets, art galleries) and other techniques of representation (i.e., artistic and scientific).

72. Callon, Méadel and Rabeharisoa, ‘Economy of Qualities’, 198–9. See also Orléan, Marchés, normes, conventions; Eymard-Duvernay, ‘Conventions de qualité’; Orléan, Analyse économique de conventions; Batifoulier, Théorie des conventions and the special issue on these theories in Revue Economique, 40, no. 2 (1989).

73. Cf. Boltanski and Thévenot, De la justification. See also De Munck, ‘Guilds, Product Quality’.

74. Eymard-Duvernay, ‘Pour un programme’.

75. See, e.g., Prak, ‘Individual, Corporation and Society’.

76. De Munck, Technologies of Learning, chapter 6.

77. Eymard-Duvernay, ‘Les qualifications des biens’, 272.

78. In Delft, the so-called ‘faienciers’ were obliged to join the St Lucas guild (established 29 May 1611) from 21 March 1661, but no collective trade marks were devised. Montias, Artists and Artisans, 74–5. The same applies in several districts in the Rhine area, where potters were usually organised in some type of guild, although these could differ substantially and were sometimes limited to a type of cartel used to negotiate with large merchants. Funke, Die Entwicklung, 31–42, 51–67. In Antwerp, the first manufacturers of majolica (sixteenth century) were not members of the St Lucas guild, although most joined thereafter. Dumortier, Céramique de la Renaissance, 71–2.

79. Dumortier, Céramique de la Renaissance, 79.

80. Giacomotti, La majolique, 141–6.

81. Havard, Histoire des faïences, 99; Montias, Artists and Artisans, 89.

82. Dumortier, Céramique de la Renaissance, 77 and 153. For example, the marks of some large ‘potverkoopers’ from the Low Countries who exported pots from the Rhineland area to the Northern and Southern Netherlands have been identified. Funke, Die Entwicklung, note 4.

83. De Munck, ‘One Counter and Your Own Account’.

84. Massé, Pewter Plate, 48, 153–4, 192.

 85. De Munck, ‘Skills, Trust’.

 86. Riello, ‘Strategies and Boundaries’; De Munck, ‘One Counter and Your Own Account’.

 87. De Vries, Industrious Revolution, chapter 4. See also Styles, ‘Product Innovation’; Berg, ‘From Imitation to Invention’.

 88. Filipczak, Picturing Art in Antwerp, 11–19, 40–5; Syson and Thornton, Objects of Virtue, chapter 4. esp. 135–6; De Marchi and Van Miegroet, ‘Pricing Invention’; De Munck, ‘Skills, Trust’.

 89. Massé, Pewter Plate, 195.

 90. Dubbe, Tin en tinnegieters, 62. Examples in Dangis, Oud tin, 25, 35.

 91. Michaelis, Antique Pewter, 101; Clifford, ‘Concepts of Invention’, 248.

 92. See, e.g., Dangis, Oud tin, 40.

 93. See, e.g., Dangis, Oud tin, 27, 41, 55, 57, 68.

 94. Michaelis, Antique Pewter, 101; Massé, Pewter Plate, 48.

 95. Van Deun, ‘Het Antwerpse tinnegietersambacht’, 35–62, 54–7; Mory, Oud tin, 38.

 96. Montias, Artists and Artisans, 293.

 97. Havard, Histoire des faïences, 105–7.

 98. Ibid., 131.

 99. Favero, ‘Old and New Ceramics’, 286.

100. Havard, Histoire des faïences, 143–6.

101. Ibid., 96–7.

102. See, e.g., Favero, ‘Old and New Ceramics’, 284ff.

103. Havard, Histoire des faïences, 110ff; Lunsingh Scheurleer, Delft Niederländische Fayence, passim.

104. Mitchell, ‘Innovation’, 11, 13–14; Clifford, ‘“King's Arms and Feathers”’; and Clifford, Silver in London.

105. Turner, ‘Silver Plating in the 18th Century’, 219; Clifford, ‘Concepts of Invention’, 242–8; Mitchell, ‘Innovation’, 13; Clifford, ‘“King’s Arms and Feathers”’, 89.

106. Massé, Pewter Plate, 195.

107. Giacomotti, La majolique, 142.

108. Schechter, Historical Foundations, 78.

109. Ibid.

110. De Munck, ’La qualité du corporatisme’; De Munck, ‘Skills, Trust’.

111. Cf. De Munck, ‘Guilds, Product Quality’ for a first elaboration of this idea (including additional references).