A wooden measuring stick, decorated with marquetry, formed from a single piece of wood. South German, 17th or 18th century.

Wooden stick 748.5 mm long, apparently single piece of wood, rectangular in section tapering from top to bottom. Veneered on all four sides, two sides with cross banding and two toned rhombus interval markers.
At top a turned hard wood vase shaped handle, with inset tip probably ivory.
Alternating light and dark veneer sections along edges.


Face A:
Three triangular and three diamond shaped decorations in light and dark veneer, with veneered panels.
Measurement unit about 40mm

Face B:
Plain veneer rectangles.
Museum number in white at right hand end.

Face C:
As face A
Measurement unit about 54mm.

Face D:
As face B.

CONDITION OR MODIFICATION:
Handle: Loss from turned rims at top and bottom.
Face A: Number 54 scratched on surface
Face C: At lower end veneer moving. Is this expansion due to water?
Number 40 scratched in middle
Face D:
At lower end damage, lifting veneer panel.






With alternating coloured inlays every 3 3/4", except for the end inlay which is 2 3/4" long

Given by Dr W.L. Hildburgh

“MEASURING STICK L 2ft Sins
SOUTH GERMAN: 17th or 18th century
Marquetry of various woods of square section, slightly tapered
towards the tip, with short turned handle. The surfaces decorated
with lozenges, having bone pattersn (sic) and cross bandings in marquetry.”

The ell was used over many centuries by tailors as a standard measure for cloth. Across Europe the ell varied in length from place to place and from time to time.

In England the ell is mentioned in a legal document of 1196 and in Magna Carta. Tailors’ ell sticks are mentioned in documents from the early 1500s and in English inventories from 1578. Elizabeth I confirmed the English ell at 45 inches, and an official measuring stick, calibrated with this length, still exists (Science Museum, London). The ell was abolished by statute in 1824 (Act 5 GIV c74).

The ell was used in German speaking countries and in France (called there an aune). A German inventory of the late 1600s mentions eight wooden ells among a tailor’s possessions. An ell being used to measure cloth appears an illustration in a French publication of 1771.

This stick closely resembles tailors’ ell rules illustrated in Eichen, Wiegen, Messen um den Freiburger Münstermarkt / mit Beiträgen von Mona Djabbarpour ... [et al], Catalogue of an exhibition held at Augustinermuseum Freiburg, 31 Jan. - 27 Apr. 2003. (NAL: 603.AD.0506), and figures 298 and 299 in Pinto, Edward. Treen and other bygones. An encyclopaedia and social history. London, G Bell and Sons, 1969, Pinto also makes the point that such rulers were made in England, but survivals of these “are extremely rare, possibly because they were unornamented”.

W.11A-1946