Date: ca. 1750
Material: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 17,2 x 182 cm
This grisaille against a blue black background depict putti working in the drapers trade. The painting shows them folding, testing, carrying and storing cloth. In the center of the painting a bust of Mercurius is depicted. De god of trade.
This painting was assumedly part of the interior of a drapers guild and was mad in the middle of the 18th century. The guilds ensured the quality of the cloth that was traded on the market. In halls specifically for this purpose, sampling officials, also known as syndics, came together to judge the quality of the cloth that was offered for sale by traders. When the syndics approved the quality the cloth was marked with a lead seal as proof of authentication.
The city of Leiden was the center of the drapers trade, The city housed seven halls where different kind of cloth were authenticated. The Laecken-Halle, opened in 1640, was the most important one. More than half of the inhabitants of Leiden were active in the drapers trade.
During the eighteenth century the international market becomes flooded with cheaper alternatives for the cloth from Leiden. In response the traders in Leiden deicide to focus on the domestic market. In the nineteenth century the guilds and halls start to disappear. Because of the industrial revolution the craft changes and workers start working in factories with mechanical weaving machines. Only one of the halls survives to this day and houses the historic museum ‘De Lakenhal.’
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