Marks on Art: Panel Makers' Marks - empirical and archival research

A wide diversity of marks is found on paintings on panel and copper supports, carved altarpieces, sculpture (wood and stone), and furniture. They comprise guild brands, quality stamps, copper and panel makers’ marks, master’s marks, so-called ‘Hausmarken’ (house marks), as well as positioning marks. These marks afford unique information about objects and their manufacture, transport, dating, places of production, artists, provenance etc., which is of fundamental importance for our knowledge and understanding of artworks and their production. A database of all these marks will open up unprecedented research possibilities. Data entering has begun based on the more than 1.000 marks on panels and paintings on copper documented since the nineteen-eighties by J. Wadum.