Tillet block
Tillet stamps were a marketing device used for Exeter’s woollen cloth exports.
Pieces of woollen cloth for export were packed in cloth wrappers or tillets. Twenty or more wrapped pieces of cloth would be made up into a bale. An attractive mark, rather like a trademark, was stamped onto the tillet wrapper using a tillet block. The stamping was done in the workshop of a tilleter using a large tillet stamping press.
Tillet blocks were composite objects – the main block had recesses into which inserts could be placed. There were shield-shaped inserts with attractive, often heraldic designs. There were also smaller inserts for merchant names, merchant marks or lengths of cloth.
This block includes the motto ‘Deo ducente, nil nocet’ which is the motto of the East India Company of means ‘When God leads, nothing can harm’.
Pieces of woollen cloth for export were packed in cloth wrappers or tillets. Twenty or more wrapped pieces of cloth would be made up into a bale. An attractive mark, rather like a trademark, was stamped onto the tillet wrapper using a tillet block. The stamping was done in the workshop of a tilleter using a large tillet stamping press.
Tillet blocks were composite objects – the main block had recesses into which inserts could be placed. There were shield-shaped inserts with attractive, often heraldic designs. There were also smaller inserts for merchant names, merchant marks or lengths of cloth.
This block includes the motto ‘Deo ducente, nil nocet’ which is the motto of the East India Company of means ‘When God leads, nothing can harm’.
Object Summary
- Accession Loan No.
- 1895/12/123
- Collection Class
- Social and industrial history
- Material
- wood | | | |
- Common Name
- tillet block
- Simple Name
- stamp
- Inscription Transcription
- DEO DUCENTE NIL NOCET (God is our leader. When God leads, nothing can harm)
- Production Town
- Production Person Initials
- Production Person Surname
- Production Year Low
- Production Year High
