Lot Essay
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
Bromley and Child, The Armorial Bearings of the Guilds of London, Warner and Co, London 1961. See plate 16, figs.79-81
'Sable a chevron engrailed argent between three bags of madder argent corded or'. No recorded grant; arms anterior to 1530. Madder is a product from the roots of a plant, forming the basis of a pigment for dying wool, cotton and linen. The colour produced was a dull red or terracotta shade and lacked the brilliance of the scarlet dye which is symbolised by the Company's crest - a grain tree proper - the supposed berries were in fact female insects which attach themselves to oak and holly, were harvested and their dried bodies produced the material from which the scarelt dye was made.
Bromley and Child, The Armorial Bearings of the Guilds of London, Warner and Co, London 1961. See plate 16, figs.79-81
'Sable a chevron engrailed argent between three bags of madder argent corded or'. No recorded grant; arms anterior to 1530. Madder is a product from the roots of a plant, forming the basis of a pigment for dying wool, cotton and linen. The colour produced was a dull red or terracotta shade and lacked the brilliance of the scarlet dye which is symbolised by the Company's crest - a grain tree proper - the supposed berries were in fact female insects which attach themselves to oak and holly, were harvested and their dried bodies produced the material from which the scarelt dye was made.