About this sheet
This is an original antique chromolithograph, printed in color, lettered "SCEAUX DES CORPORATIONS DE BRUGES". Ten numbered guild seals, with two further impressions linked to seals 1 and 8, are printed in a dark green imitating the wax, on a cream ground. Among the emblems are an ox for the butchers, a hat for the hatters, a wheel and axe for the wheelwrights, a hammer for the thatchers, a ewer for the pewterers and a shield with a set square for the carpenters. Standing bishop saints appear on the smiths' seal and, under a gothic canopy, on the goldsmiths'. Most rims carry legible Flemish legends naming Bruges.
The running head reads "SIGILLOGRAPHIE, PL. IV." Credits: "A. Rivaud del.", "Chromolith. Lemercier à Paris." and "H. Moulin lith." The caption continues "Suspendus à une pièce de l'année 1356, conservée aux Archives de la Ville de Bruges. (Cire Verte)" (Hanging from a document of the year 1356, kept in the Archives of the City of Bruges; green wax) and lists "1. Les Bouchers, 2. Les Cordiers, 3. Les Couvreurs, 4. Les Chapeliers, 5. Les Charrons, 6. Les Maréchaux, 7. Les Couvreurs en Paille, 8. Les Orfèvres, 9. Les Potiers d'Etain, 10. Les Charpentiers." (butchers, ropemakers, roofers, hatters, wheelwrights, smiths, thatchers, goldsmiths, pewterers, carpenters). It ends "F. Sére direxit."
Le Moyen Âge et la Renaissance, histoire et description des mœurs et usages, du commerce et de l'industrie, des sciences, des arts, des littératures et des beaux-arts en Europe was edited by Paul Lacroix, who also wrote as the Bibliophile Jacob, with Ferdinand Séré as artistic director, and it was published in Paris in five volumes between 1848 and 1851. Its plates reproduce objects, manuscripts, seals and ornament of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and every sheet carries a running head naming the work, the section and the plate number. The Sigillographie plates of the fourth volume are given over to seals, drawn from impressions and matrices in public archives and collections and identified in the lettering by owner and location.
The plate frames well on its own or alongside the other seal plates from the same section.
Condition: Overall age toning, deeper than on most sheets of the volume; light handling wear to the corners.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
