Cloth Seal, French, Amiens
Cloth Seal, French, Amiens, Image & Found by Rick J. Barton.
Found on Prince Edward Island, Canada, ?mm.
Crowned French arms, ...AMIENS around // missing, traced of stamp on rivet stub and traces of cloth weave imprint
Identified by Michel Royer as "manufacture d'Amiens". Amiens is a city in Northern France, Wikipedia.
See plomb-de-scellé for a more complete example.
"The introduction of looms at the end of the 12th century made the city of Amiens an important cloth center, whose exports to Italy were attested in 1182.
The manufacture of fabrics from imported English wool is attested before 1145.
Adjoining the great drapery, the production of Amiens is however of standard quality. The light draperies are not realized before the second half of the 14th century.
From 1480, the immigration of the exiled artisans of Arras allowed the introduction of the saieterie, which became the main artisanal activity exploded in many domestic workshops and bringing together 5 or 6,000 workers in the middle of the 16th century.
The crowns appear around 1530.
The production is diversified: ostades, hawkers, Ascot-style serges, satins, mixed fabrics and silk burail introduced by Flemish immigrants. The system of production and distribution of products, very split, makes the trades very dependent on each other.
In the middle of the seventeenth century there are 2000 looms in Amiens. A survey of 1692 still counts 600 fabric manufacturers, including 490 saytier masters, who have 1500 trades, and 110 highlighters, who own 500.
The activity, regulated by Colbert (1666), constitutes an urban monopoly but it is however ruralized. A stop of 1762 will authorize the production of the stuffs in the countryside. There are then 20,000 jobs outside the walls for 4595 trades in intramural activity.
The principal productions of Amiens are then the serges, the hawkers and the stamens.
According to a survey of 1708, the industries of Amiens did not suffer from the wars and maintained their outlets in France, as abroad (Switzerland, Italy, Spain).
The historical and geographical almanac of Picardy (1754), indicates the market to the son, 'in a great part of the wools which are used to the fabrics of the manufacture of this city, of which one makes a great trade in all Europe'.
At the end of the eighteenth century, these factories are however in competition with the factories of Rouen. The high quality fabrics were made with wool imported from England, common fabrics with wool from neighboring regions. The statistic of 1738 mentions three kinds of tissues: the hawkers, the stamens (9 kinds in 1755) and the stuffed animals (6 kinds in 1755)." from Picardia.
|
|