20th century Jingdezhen ware with factory mark

A factory mark is a marking affixed by manufacturers on their productions in order to authenticate them. Numerous factory marks are known throughout the ages, and are essential in determining the provenance or dating of productions.

History

The manufacturer's marks are very old: the ones found on Korakou culture

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

are four thousand years old, and the ones on ancient Greek and Roman vases date back to 5th-4th centuries BC. While the production marks are technically distinct from the ownership marks, at these times, when a craftsman typically was the same person as the merchant, and many people were illiterate, a single mark frequently served both purposes. Medieval gilds set up the system of compulsory ("regulatory") marks for the craftsman, intended to trace the defective items and punish the offenders, with most typical examples provided by the

bakery A bakery is an establishment that produces and sells flour-based baked goods made in an oven such as bread, cookies, cakes, doughnuts, bagels, Pastry, pastries, and pies. Some retail bakeries are also categorized as Coffeehouse, cafés, servi ...

trade. In English weapons manufacturing (including cutlery) the regulations concerning the manufacturer marks were firmly established in the 14th century: no weapon shall be sold without a personal mark of the craftsman, misuse of the mark was subject to court actions. The distinction between the factory marks and

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a Good (economics and accounting), product or Service (economics), service f ...

s in England became clear by the 17th century in the cloth trade: the manufacturer marks (initials of the maker weaved into the cloth) were required from the producers by regulations and represented a liability, while the trademark (mark of the clothier) represented the goodwill, an asset, not of the actual craftsman, but of the capitalist who furnished the capital for the production. The rise of factory marks (at the expense of the marks of actual makers) was also occurring elsewhere, De Munck links this to changes in the labor relations and methods of production ( molds for

earthenware Earthenware is glazed or unglazed Vitrification#Ceramics, nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below . Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids ...

, for example, reduced potters to low-skilled laborers).

Terminology

The terms "

", "

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

", "

certification mark A certification mark on a commercial product or service is a registered Mark (sign), mark that enables its owner ("certification body") to certify that the goods or services of a particular provider (who is not the owner of the certification ...

" are very recent. The guild regulations were using "guild sign", "master sign", "quality mark", "sign", "mark", "signature". Modern researchers, when discussing historical marks, typically use "

hallmark A hallmark is an official Mark (sign), mark or series of marks struck on items made of metal, mostly to certify the content of noble metals—such as platinum, gold, silver and in some nations, palladium. In a more general sense, the term ''Wikti ...

", and "trade mark" for guild marks, "monogram" for individual or company marks.

Forgery

The factory marks have been imitated "profusely through the ages" in order to inflate the value of the goods, particularly the porcelain pieces, so accepting the mark at its face value requires a degree of care.

Porcelain

Factory marks are essential in the area of

porcelain Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...

production especially, where they are sometimes also called "backstamps", and where their absence would make authentication much more difficult. It is frequently claimed that the first factory mark on the European porcelain, in the shape of crossed swords, appeared on the

Meissen Meissen ( ), is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden and 75 km (46 mi) west of Bautzen on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, th ...

pieces in 1720. Edwards points out to earlier examples of Saint-Cloud and Medici porcelain, but there is little doubt that the Meissen mark was the first ever on a commercial porcelain product.

History

Terminology

Forgery

Porcelain

See also

References

Sources

External links