Bread Stamp 4.0

Properties & Qualities

Application

Product

Qualities

3D Rigid

Colour

White Other

Sample Information

Date of creation

December 19, 2019

Dimensions

20 cm x 0,6 cm

Weight

100 gr.

Culture & Context

The bread stamp or mark is a wooden artifact, between 10 and 20 cm high, carved in the round, and variously decorated, consisting of a single block of wood and divided into two main sections: an upper one with a decorative-symbolic figuration and a lower one in whose base the initials of a name were carved.
Each family owned one and it was used to brand the dough grown, kneaded in their homes and then baked in the town’s wood-fired ovens. It was often offered by the man as a request and pledge of love, during courtship, and the initials engraved in the base of the stamp were those of the suitor’s surname and first name. It was kept by married women among their personal belongings and no one could take it.
The authors of these stamps were none other than shepherds and farmers, who during the pastures and transhumance brought back in those simple pieces of wood all their mastery and knowledge of archaic depictions handed down through the stamps themselves.
The types depicted are essentially anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, phallic and architecturally inspired.
The woman was represented, absorbed and sensual, through her exaggerated physicality (evidenced by the size of her breasts and the prominence of her belly)as a symbol of fertility, abundance and the generator of life as well as the protector of the home. The man, on the other hand, was depicted as a shepherd, carabiniere, soldier or knight. The
figurations of the rooster and the hen, were linked to an archaic symbolism referring
to the manifestation of light and a symbol of steadfastness and vigilance. The dog is depicted
always sitting on its hind legs in the typical attitude of resting and watchful waiting