Printing Block

Fabric printing block, with the surface image of four sacks containing cotton or other items, and the inscription: "PZ full weight and quality; registered trade mark no. 605107."

Manchester cotton merchants used colourful, detailed trademark designs. The designs would be stamped onto individual pieces of cloth or cloth bundles.

Textile companies employed artists to design their trademarks, and skilled makers turned them into printing blocks by hammering thin strips of metal into the wood. They often depicted pictures or words they thought would appeal to their customers.

The advantage of using an image meant that even non-english readers/speakers could differentiate between the cloth.