FIVE CENTURIES AGO

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 74, 31 July 1929, Page 4

FIVE CENTURIES AGO

AN ANCIENT CORPORATION.

FOUNDERS' STAMPING EIGHTS. Interesting facts concerning the Founders' Company, which to this day retains its stamping rights, ami has its stamping office in a basement in St. Swithin'g Lane, London, were brought to light at the recent livery dinner of the guild at Sailers' Hall. The company exists for the benefit and protection of founders occupied with the manufacture of copper, brass, and other of, the finer metals, and although the actual duties of stamping were long ago taken over by the Board of Trade, the ancient offices of Sizens and Searchers, officials appointed to bring to weights and measures, are still in existence. The emoluments, hornever, which were once substantial, are nil. The Founders' Company was incorporated five centuries ago, with jurisdiction over candlesticks, buckles, pots and other articles worked in brass, pewter, and so on. They were stamped with the 'company's arms in the same way as articles of gold are stamped by the Goldsmiths' Company to-day. The company's hall, which Used tc be in Lothbury, was burned down in the Great Fire. It was afterwards rebuilt and the company remained in that position until eiglnv. years ago, when a move was ■•'.•ade to St. Swithin's Lane. The origin of the guild is lost in antiquity, but there is evidence that a Brass and Metal Founders' Guild or Society existed in 1365.