Express scales from the Basle armoury

Description

The longer arm is marked with the scale and the running weight can be pushed to and for along it. The load is suspended from the hook on the shorter arm, and the running weight on the longer arm pushed along until the balance beam lies horizontal; then the weight is read off the scale. Loads of up to four and a half tons could be weighed on these scales. They were purchased in October 1687 by the inner council from Reinhard Siegfried (guild member from 1662), a master toolmaker specialising in such scales, and were set up in the Basle armoury where they were used for weighing particularly heavy objects. According to the armoury inventory of 1711 they hung at the entrance under a wooden roof. There are two impressions of the Basle coat of arms and the year 1687 on the bell shaped brass running weight. The brass cap placed on the shorter arm also carries the Basle coat of arms accompanied by a basilisk supporter. These emblems indicate that the scales were officially commissioned, but they also reflect the strong civic self confidence of Basle in the Baroque period.