What-is-it question LXXXVII.

[Doos]

Hi,

What were these used for?
It is a very local.


.

[Hose_dk]

it seals - for putting at documents to state their autification.
Every man had one with his initials.

now it is just one thing - is seal an animal or have I chosen the right expresion for those?
.

[admin]

Hose,
The english is correct. Seal has many definitions, but amongst them are both "wax stamp" and "aquatic mammal".
Regards, Tom
.

[Doos]

Hi,

They are seals of some kind, but these were for a very specific goal.
.

[Doos]

Hi,

This may be a bit too difficult as they were used only in Amsterdam.

They are broker's batons used by members of the brokers guilde to identify themselves as bona fide members. The tradition started in the mid 17th century and lasted till the mid 19th century.
Today some real estate agents have them made as a novelty (sometimes with a knife attached to serve as a letter opener), but the batons were used by brokers of any commodity (coffee, tea, tabacco etc).

Some of them are illustrated in Wttewaall's "Nederlands klein zilver" on page 290 (1987 edition). These are highly collectable.
.

[admin]

Doos,
How large are they? I assumed 3 inches or so, but Baton implies a larger scale.

Regards, Tom
.

[Doos]

Hi,

The length is typically around 12.5 cm (11-13).
Maybe "baton" is not the luckiest translation for "makelaars stokje" which literally means "broker's stick".
.

[admin]

That's about 5 inches, which puts them on the large end of the scale for seals.
.

[Doos]

Hi,

They are not real seals as the outer seals were not unique to a specific broker.
The main goal of the stick was to show it to the customer, just like a police officer has to show his/her badge.
.