Mercers Company Garrard Antique Silver large Salver London 1897

Mercers Company Garrard Antique Silver large Salver by James Garrard, London 1897. Shaped circular form with a raised beaded wavy-edge rim, raised on three claw and ball feet, the underside engraved "Presented by The Mercer's Company, in commemoration of the completion of the 60th year of the reign of H.M. Queen Victoria. 1897', crested, diameter 12 inches, weight 30oz. In 1843 Queen Victoria bestowed the honour of Crown Jeweller on the Garrard Company. The Worshipful Company of Mercers is the premier livery company of the City of London and ranks first in the order of precedence of the Companies. It is the first of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies. Today, the Company exists primarily as a charitable institution, supporting a variety of causes. The company's motto is Honor Deo, Latin for "Honour to God”. The origin of the "Mercers' Maiden", the heraldic emblem of the company, is not known. Unlike most of the City livery companies, the Mercers had no early grant of arms but the 1425 charter granted a common seal. A few impressions of the early seal survive showing a greatly simplified version of the present coat of arms. The fifteenth century Wardens' Accounts reveal that, even then, the Company required the device of the Maid's Head to be displayed on its property. In 1530 the Company stated to the College of Heralds that they had no arms but only a Maid's Head for their common seal and in 1568 the Heralds registered the seal as the company's arms. In 1911 the College of Arms confirmed the arms and granted the company a crest and motto, 'Honor Deo' (Honour to God). The grant blazons the arms: Gules, issuant from a bank of clouds a figure of the Virgin couped at the shoulders proper vested in a crimson robe adorned with gold the neck encircled by a jeweled necklace or and wreathed about the temples with a chaplet of roses alternately argent and of the first and crowned with a celestial crown the whole within a bordure of clouds also proper.