The Livery Newsletter and Gazette Issue 32 Spring 2020 | Page 14

Company Shield at Tallow Chandlers’ Hall This story begins with dinner on a cold winter’s night in January 2019 at The George & Vulture; revered City hostelry off Lombard Street. A favourite haunt of Charles Dickens, the place was mentioned more than twenty times in The Pickwick Papers and has since become the spiritual home of The City Pickwick Club. On the night in question, I was honoured to be the guest of Past Master Charles Miller, a member of the Club, at one of its meetings where dinner was served in Pickwickian style with large helpings of fun and bonhomie. The Club members were most welcoming to all of the guests. During dinner, Charles and I found ourselves sitting with two Club members that were both Past Masters of the Tallow Chandlers’ Company including David Simmonds, an old school friend of our Past Master Roger Merton. We all got to chat about our links and connections including those of the respective Companies. The Tallow Chandlers played host to many of our Company’s meetings and events in the early years following re-formation in 1954. Things went so well that, by the end of the meal, David Simmonds enquired of us whether the Tobacco Pipe Makers might consider installing a glazed panel bearing our Company’s heraldic shield in the oriel window at Tallow Chandlers’ Hall. The oriel window is a singular feature in the main Hall that includes many panels with the shields of those Livery Companies with whom the Tallow Chandlers are or have been associated. The answer to the question was a hearty ‘Yes!’. In the weeks and months that followed, we worked with the Tallow Chandlers to agree the basis on which to proceed, the outcome being presented at the Election Court along with costings. With the Court’s approval, the project sprang to life with the commission of the panel with vitreous artist, Mel 14