BNY × Leatherius Woodman – a leather stamping study
From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of stamping studies on real-world marks.
An August study.
BNY opened as the Bank of New York on June 9, 1784, under a constitution in Alexander Hamilton's hand, and in 1792 it became the first company traded on the newly founded New York Stock Exchange. Its stated purpose today reads "Making money work for the world." Between those dates and this one sits a long, deliberately unglamorous office: keeping the authoritative record of who holds what.
The medium of that record refuses to sit still. Electronic clearing for government securities arrived in 1977, and in 1996 the bank became the first to process securities over the internet. This January it announced on-chain mirrored representations of client deposit balances, while its Digital Assets Platform joins custody and settlement across traditional and digital ecosystems, the register remaining foundational through it all. That continuity, from quill to clock signal, is what we pressed this August.
The mark, as found
A separate teal arrow, then B N Y in deep navy geometric capitals. The lockup runs about five times wider than tall; a mark like that lies lengthwise or it lies badly.
Pressed
Three lengthwise tags. Navy blueberry answers the letters and pale sea-blue answers the arrow, the two colors of the mark returned as leather. The black tag carries the gold foil, the one finish in our line with the formality of a bank older than the exchange it was first to trade on; the other two are pressed blind.
Ink to signal
The first companion die is one unbroken line. At the left a quill writes 1784 in copperplate, the numerals joined so the pen never lifts. The exit stroke of the 4 runs on and settles into a straight ledger rule, and the rule then steps into a square clock signal, five crisp pulses, ending blunt. It is the same line the whole way. BNY's own history drew it for us; we only kept the pen on the paper.
On the toiletry bags the line sits low in the right corner, navy blueberry stacked over dark espresso, the most senior brown we cut. The press is blind, as all our toiletry bags are, and the quieter for it.
Our catchall tray comes in golden tan only, and there the line runs centered across the base at generous width: an engraved rule that begins in 1784 and ends mid-pulse, still running when the day's keys land on it.
Carried forward
The journals argued for a second die, and we let them win. In bookkeeping, a double rule beneath the figure means the account is settled; we set CARRIED FORWARD in engraver's capitals directly above that rule, with SINCE 1784 beneath the words. We hesitated over pressing a joke on a bank of this seniority, then noticed the ledger had made it first: every total this house has struck became the opening balance of a next page. A journal makes the same promise each time it opens.
The journals wear navy blueberry and pale warm greige, stamped generously in the lower right where a monogram would sit.
The keychains take the same die on blueberry and pale sea-blue fobs, pressed blind, small enough to carry the year 1784 in a pocket.
We made this out of love. Leatherius Woodman is on a mission to create and share artifacts of beauty, craft and love – this study is one of them, and we hope the feeling is mutual. Every image is a render – how we prototype before cutting a die.
If you're BNY and you'd like these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.