18th century over door painting, grisaille with putti

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, the god of trade, is depicted.

This painting was presumably part of the interior of a drapers’ guild and was made 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 kinds 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 18th century the international market became flooded with cheaper alternatives to the cloth from Leiden. In response the traders in Leiden decided to focus on the domestic market. In the 19th century the guilds and halls began to disappear. Because of the Industrial Revolution the craft changed and workers began to work in factories with mechanical weaving machines. Only one of the halls survives to this day; it houses the historic museum “De Lakenhal”.