Company Treasures

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“Old” Staff head and mount

“Old” Staff head and mount

During the first 600 years of the existence of the Company, there is no record of members of the Company wearing any regalia or other distinguishing marks, but the Beadle carried a wooden staff.  In 1702 the Company commissioned and purchased a silver head for this staff.

 The main body of this staff head is in the form of a hollow flattened sphere, 3.1/4ins. diameter x 1.1/2ins  deep. On one side is engraved the shield of the Shipwrights’ Arms (granted to the Company of Shipwrights of Redriff in 1605, and adopted by the Worshipful Company after the Redriff Company went out of existence about 1700) surrounded by mantling but with no crest or motto.  On the other side is engraved the Shield of the City ofLondon, with similar mantling.  Surmounting  the  sphere is a disc,  2.1/8ins. diameter, with convex sides on which are cast the 1605 crest encircled by branches with leaves.

 In 1980,  David I. Moor,  Assistant to the Court, had the staff head mounted on a mahogany plinth, with a brass plate inscribed:

 WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF SHIPWRIGHTS

HEAD OF BEADLE’S STAFF

1702

 The silver mount, a screwed socket which fitted into the top of the original staff  (no longer in the Company’s possession), is inside the base of the stand.

 At Company dinners, the staff head is customarily placed together with a nef in front of the Prime Warden, or Permanent Master if he is  present.

(003/1702)

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