The inspectors used pliers to press the seals of their city (front) and guild (reverse) into penny-sized slugs of lead that were specially affixed to record the results of the inspection.

[4] The men, who are appraising a length of Persian-style fabric against exemplars from a swatch book, are (from left to right): The guild commissioned this portrait and it hung in their guildhall, the Staalhof (nl), until 1771.

[5] The painting plays an important role in Zadie Smith's book On Beauty, in which one of the main characters, Howard Belsey, is a Rembrandt scholar.

Rembrandt likely considered the placement of the painting on the wall, as he chose a perspective with a fairly low vantage point, allowing the viewer to look up at the table from below.

This technique allowed Rembrandt to position the figures almost in a straight line: five dark shapes, their white collars, and the serious, frontal gazes of the "staalmeesters," fully aware of the importance of their role.

This arrangement presents the viewer with a row of five distinguished, intense faces, aligned almost horizontally but with a slight oscillation like lanterns.