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The bakers' guild's torches

These two Baroque bakers' guild torches consist of a staff crowned with a statue group and above it a candle holder. Members of the bakers' guild proudly carried the torches in the procession as a recognition of their craft.

Torches were important symbolic objects for the craft guilds. They called on various artists to create these prestigious objects. As a symbol of their profession, bakers chose their patron Saint Aubert, depicted handing out loaves of bread. Aubertus of Kamerijk (c. 600-669?) was bishop of Atrecht and Kamerijk and is said to have baked loaves of bread with his own hands in the monastery during a famine before distributing them to the townspeople.