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This precious piece of silver is one of the oldest in the Company collection. It was bequeathed to the Company by former Master, Richard Maye in 1597. Rosewater dishes were originally used in the daily rituals of washing one's hands in rosewater. These objects were typically paired with a ewer (a type of jug) from which the rosewater would have been poured. Maye’s original gift included such a ewer, but this does not survive.
Although these objects had the practical purpose of ritual washing, they were also treasured as objects of art. The incised decoration on this piece of silver would have been the height of style in the late Tudor age, with Renaissance style garlands of fruit and flowers, coats-of-arms and monsters.
This Rosewater Dish was given to the Merchant Taylors Company by Maye in his will, as a means of making sure the Company remembered him. On special ceremonial days, people who had died and had given generous gifts to the Company were remembered in collective prayer. This precious dish and its now lost companion ewer, were Richard Maye’s means of preserving his memory amongst future generations.
Collections of silver were also important due to their material value. In times of financial peril, the Company would have been able to melt down such gifts to finance itself. Unfortunately, the Crown realised this too, and often drew on London’s Livery Companies’ bountiful collections of silver to fund its own wars and projects. This is why few pieces of early Company silver survive to the present day, as they fell foul of monarchs and their need for money, whilst much was also destroyed in the Great Fire of London.
