The recognisable identity a maker's work is met under. Originally a mark burned in to show whose it was.
Old English brand/brond (fire, a burning torch, a sword), from Proto-Germanic *brandaz, related to 'burn'; the identity sense comes directly from branding livestock with a hot iron to mark ownership.
The recognisable identity a maker's work is met under — the mark that, once, was literally burned in to show whose it was.