What-is-it question LXXXVII.

Doos · Post by **Doos** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 10:38 am

Hi,

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

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Hose_dk · Post by **Hose_dk** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 2:00 pm

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?
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Post by **admin** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 3:49 pm

Hose,
The english is correct. Seal has many definitions, but amongst them are both "wax stamp" and "aquatic mammal".
Regards, Tom
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Doos · Post by **Doos** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 4:17 pm

Hi,

They are seals of some kind, but these were for a very specific goal.
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Doos · Post by **Doos** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 11:03 am

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.
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Post by **admin** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 11:15 am

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

Regards, Tom
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Doos · Post by **Doos** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 11:45 am

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".
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Post by **admin** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 12:34 pm

That's about 5 inches, which puts them on the large end of the scale for seals.
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Doos · Post by **Doos** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 12:48 pm

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.
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