Label
Above each fireplace, at either end of the Court Room, are two carvings of near identical Company coats of arms. One depicts the Company’s heraldry from before the Reformation, and one from after.
When Henry VIII established the Church of England in the 1530s, religious images became symbols of the ‘Old Faith’ of Catholicism. Establishments like the Merchant Taylors Company had to find ways to survive in this new world, and one way in which they did so was to alter their coat of arms (their identifiable, public facing symbol).
This original coat of arms was granted in 1481. We can see the central pavilion and two robes - symbolic of the association of the Company with garment making, as well those who used similar skills to make tents for the Crown. In the chief is the Holy Lamb, the symbol of Saint John the Baptist who was the tailor’s patron saint. Above this, on the crest, is the Virgin Mary in a golden dress inside a purple pavilion, with the Christ child before her. Christ holds one end of the ‘seamless garment’ which the soldiers are thought to have cast lots for at the Crucifixion, while the Virgin works on the other end. This echoes the tailor’s role as garment makers. The images of the Virgin and Child, and the Holy Lamb on this earlier crest would have been seen to be too religious after the Reformation.