A GUARDIAN ASSURANCE FIREMAN'S BADGE NUMBER 2

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FIREMAN'S BADGES Starting in the late 17th century, insurance companies began to form fire brigades who could be called upon to fight fires and to protect and salvage items from any building that they insured. The need to identify these firemen as employees of the company was quickly identified, as well as the potential these men offered as walking advertisments for their employers. To meet this need the firemen were soon clothed in colourful costumes and given badges of silver or silver-gilt to be worn on the sleeve, as in the picture of a Fireman, thought to be George Mead (lot 61) and like those of the Thames watermen, where many of the Firemen were first employed. So important was the job of these men that they were exempted, after an act of parliament in 1707, from the press gangs who would have been roaming the streets looking for men to conscript into the Navy. Unlike fire marks, which would have been placed onto every building that was insured by a given company, these fireman's badges were never made in large numbers as each fire brigade would have consisted of no more than 30 men. This, along with the abuse that the badges would have suffered during daily wear, explains why so few have survived, indeed Henham and Sharp located only 140 of them for their book on the topic, including the examples offered here. For further information about these badges, refer to Brian Henham and Brian Sharp; Badges of Extinction, The 18th and 19th century Badges of Insurance Office Firemen, Quiller Press, London, 1989. GEORGE IV SILVER GUARDIAN ASSURANCE COMPANY SILVER FIREMAN'S BADGES MARK OF PHILIP VENNER FIRMIN, LONDON, 1821 Oval with a central cast and chased figure of Athene, holding a spear in her right hand and an olive branch in her left hand, amongst clouds and below a ribbon reading GUARDIAN ASSURANCE COMPANY, all contained within an oak leaf and acorn motif border, with a central roundel - 9.5cm (3¾ in). The Guardian Assurance Company was founded in 1821 and merged with the Guardian Royal Exchange Group in 1968. Beside the examples offered here, Henham and Sharp note the existance of badge number 1.

Details

A GUARDIAN ASSURANCE FIREMAN'S BADGE NUMBER 2

Literature

Noted ibid page 73.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

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