Height: 6cm (2.4in)
Silver. A pair of Vintners’ Company silver tot cups formed as barrels, engraved with the arms and motto of the Vintners’ Company. Maker’s mark of Birch & Gaydon, Fenchurch Street, London EC3. Hallmarked London 1938.
The vintners of London formed in the twelfth century and received their first royal charter in 1363. This granted far-reaching powers including duties of search throughout English dominions and the right to buy herrings and cloth to sell to the Gascons. This royal charter effectively granted a monopoly over wine imports from Gascony, securing the Company pre-eminence in the wine trade. Ranked eleventh in 1515 when the order of precedence of City Livery Companies was established by King Henry VIII, Queen Mary revoked the Company's rights in 1553. Its privileges removed under the Stuarts were restored by William and Mary, but the Company could not recover its former trading dominance in Europe. By 1725 few wine merchants were joining the livery, so the Company finally abandoned claim to the duty of search.