Cloth Seal, Dutch, Leiden, Jan van Heukelom, Image & Found by Marco van der Meer.
Found in the Netherlands, 37mm.
Van Heukelom cloth mark* // .L. / 40 / six-pointed star
*See Wolmerk van de Laaken Fabrieceurs showing a lion rampant holding the family's privy mark in left paw, IN HOLLAND curved below, JAN VAN HEUKELOM & ZOON, LAAKEN FABRIECEURS LEYDEN (on the seal 'Laaken Fabrieceurs' is omitted and replaced by LEYDEN FAB). The 40 is probably the length of the cloth in ells.
See Jan van Heukelom V, "The van Heukelom family is engaged in the manufacture of woolen fabrics in Leiden. After Matthijs van Heukelom, who founded the company in Leiden in 1695 on the Hogewoerd, the oldest sons in subsequent generations are always called Jan. ... The beginning. Around 1690 Matthijs van Heukelom (1663-1725) comes to Leiden from Goch, in Germany near Cleves, and establishes himself in 1695 as a cloth manufacturer on the Hogewoerd. He
buys the house there at number 53 and a year later he also becomes the owner of the house next door. Both houses are joined together and plastered behind a white façade to look like one building. Here Matthijs practices the profession of cloth press cloth manufacturer (Laaken Fabrieceur).
His successors with the name Jan are: Jan I (1693-1762), Jan II (1730-1806), Jan III (1758-1835), Jan IV (1784-1847) and Jan V (1813-1886). Most of their lives were spent in the wool industry in Leiden.
Matthijs van Heukelom is the founder of the Van Heukelom textile manufacturers.
Matthijs' son (Jan I), trained by his father, set up his own cloth company and buys the Hogewoerd no. 145 in 1725 with a house behind it at the Levendaal. Nowadays the former factory of Van Wijk & Co. is located there. This Jan has eleven children with his wife, of which only six survive.
His successor in the business (Jan II) gained national fame in 1779 by winning a gold medal in a competition of the Utrecht Provincial Society of Arts and Sciences. The subject was the "redress" of industry. The article is considered one of the most important treatises on the economy of the Republic. This Jan had a keen insight into the economic (im)possibilities of the textile industry. He lays the foundation for success in the nineteenth century of the firm and buys a number of buildings between the Hogewoerd and the Levendaal.
Jan II's company, like that of his father and grandfather, begins traditionally by making extensive use of homeworkers but under him is transformed to a 'real' factory with tools such as combing machines (for coarse carding), spinning lure machines (fine carding) and spinning machines.
Jan III, the eldest son of Jan II, has an excellent mind, just like his father. He attends the Latin school and Leiden University, but his studies (literature) he does not complete. In addition to this study, he follows a professional training in cloth manufacturing. Together with Frans van Lelyveld and Cornelis van der Moer, Jan III founded the company Frans van Lelyveld & Co. in 1783. Despite the sudden death of Lelyveld in 1785, Jan III continues the company without name change. He moves to the Hogewoerd and surroundings, next to his father's company. In 1797 Jan III's company moves again, this time to the Oude Singel and Korte Mare. He also buys a beautiful house there 'In den Ghecroonden Houhamer'.
When Jan II dies in 1806, the company is sold and Jan III continues with his son with the Frans van Lelyveld & Compagnie company. They build a factory at 3 de Binnenvestgracht where, in November 1816, the first steam engine in the textile industry in the Northern Netherlands is put into operation.
Jan IV. - The textile industry in Leiden changed radically in the nineteenth century. In 1833 the factory on the 3 de Binnenvestgracht went up in flames and the production was shut down. The business is rebuilt, but from then on things did not go well for the company. In 1847, on the death of Jan IV, the firm F. van Lelyveld Wzn. & Cie is weighed down by a heavy burden of debt."