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Art Collection

The Company possesses a varied art collection. 

An extensive catalogue is available for consultation.

 

The picture collection consists of 170 pictures in total.

A wide range of artists are represented: 16th century artists such as Adrian Key; 17th century artists such as Jean Baptist Monnoyer; W L Wylie and Philip de Laszlo in the 19th century; and Andrew Ingamells, Lucy Kemp-Welch, Duncan Grant and Andrew Festing from the 20th century. A wide range of mediums are also represented, including oil on panel, oil on canvas, engravings, etchings, watercolour and silkscreen.

 

This magnificent oil on panel portrait of Sir Thomas Gresham was painted in 1544 by an unknown artist of the Flemish school.

 

It is Gresham's wedding portrait – the inscription reads ‘AG love, serve and obei TG’ – perhaps an accompanying portrait of his wife Ann Gresham (neé Ferneley) was painted but does not survive.

 

The inscription states Gresham’s age, 26, and also shows this ‘merchant’s mark’ – a form of unique ‘trademark’ for individual merchants – which is unusual in a formal portrait.

 

The painting is the earliest known full-length portrait of a non-Royal Briton. It is a beautifully executed painting, showing to great effect Gresham’s ostensibly reserved, yet actually very fine and lavishly made black clothing.

 

The portrait shows a skull at Gresham’s feet – a ‘memento mori’ – a favourite device of the 16th century artist, reminding the sitter and the onlooker that all men are mortal and will eventually die.

 

Between 1879 and 1881 the second Mercers’ Hall was extensively refurbished, incorporating internal designs by one of the most important firms of decorators working in Britain in the 19th century, Crace & Sons Ltd. Designs for beautiful new decorative schemes for the Livery Hall, entrance hall, Court Rooms and a new Drawing Room were the work of John Gregory Crace (1809-1889), assisted by his son John Dibblee Crace (1839-1919).

 

J G Crace also designed new stained glass for the Hall. The scheme for the Livery Hall in particular was very imaginative and elaborate, with six large windows depicting Thomas Gresham, Richard II, Thomas Becket, Richard Whittington, Elizabeth I and John Colet, with each figure surrounded by numerous armorial bearings of eminent members and benefactors of the Company, as well as round lights for either end of the Hall and galleries.

 

 

Clement Heaton (1824-82) was joined by James Butler (1830-1913) in 1852, and in 1861 their chief designer, Turnill Bayne (1837-1915), was made a partner in the firm. The Mercers’ Hall commission of what was in the main heraldic work is a fine example of the firm’s work - no expense was spared in the realisation of Crace’s designs, and the quality of the mouth-blown British ‘muff glass’ used in them is superb, as is the attention to colour detail and fine paint work. ‘Muff’ or ‘antique’ glass was produced by techniques which deliberately sought to emulate the fine quality of texture, variety and thickness of medieval glass. The technique allowed for a great variety of tints of colour within the glass itself.

 

 

 

The stained glass was removed and stored during the Second World War and therefore escaped destruction with the second Mercers’ Hall in 1941. However, only a fraction of the glass was remodelled and re-used for the present Mercers’ Hall by H L Pawle, one of the best stained glass workers of his day, between 1956 and 1958, as prevailing tastes then tended to view Victorian glass as over-ornate. The figures of Elizabeth I and Richard II were re-used in their entirety, but without their surrounding heraldry, and only half of the figure of Becket was re-used, re-styled in a roundel by H L Pawle. Only ten of the coats of arms were re-used in the Livery Hall and Ambulatory.

 

 

 

Mercers’ Hall houses various fine carvings. The finest are undoubtedly those mounted on the panels of the Court Room and Court Dining Room. These ten 17th century swags of fruit and flowers, carved out of lime, were the gift of Sir John Dashwood King in 1817. Nothing is known of their precise provenance - they were not carved for King’s home, but it has been established that they are definitely not ‘Grinling Gibbons’ finest’ as King claimed.

 

They are definitely by an excellent contemporary of Grinling Gibbons (1648-1721), the celebrated decorative wood-carver, but cannot be definitely attributed to him - ‘school of’ is as much as can be said. Originally the carvings would have been very light in colour, allowing the shadows in the carving to bring the details into sharp relief.

However, years of Victorian waxing and 19th century pollution has brought about the present dark wood appearance which was so fashionable in the 19th century.

 

This remarkable Statue was discovered 5 feet beneath the floor of the site of Mercers’ Chapel on 30 April 1954 during the building of the third Mercers’ Hall. The second Mercers’ Hall had been destroyed on the night of 10/11 May 1941 during the Blitz.

 

The Statue had presumably been hurriedly buried during the Reformation and no documentary evidence exists as to the circumstances of its burial, its precise date of carving or the identity of the sculptor. The quality of carving is exceptional, depicting the dead Christ, his body markedly showing the cruel effects of crucifixion, lying on a purple robe.

 

"IHE NAS REX IUD (JESUS OF NAZARETH KING OF THE JEWS)"

"IN PACE FACTUS EST LOCUS EIUS (HE MADE HIS ABODE IN PEACE)"

"HUMILITAVIT SEMITIPSUM ET FACTUS OBEDIENS USQUE AD MORTEM MORTEUM AUTEM CRUCIS PAULUS EPT AD PHILIPPENS (HE HUMBLED HIMSELF AND MADE HIMSELF OBEDIENT UNTO DEATH EVEN THE DEATH ON THE CROSS - ST PAUL EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS)"

 

The main article on the statue is ‘A Statue of Christ from the Ruins of Mercers’ Hall’ by Joan Evans and Norman Cook, The Archaeological Journal Volume CX1 July 1955. The discovery of the statue is also discussed in The Mercers’ Hall by Jean Imray (LTS 1991).

 

The statue was featured in the first episode of A History of British Art on BBC2 on 21 April 1996, and appears in the book of the series by Andrew Graham Dixon published by BBC Books on 25 April 1996.

 

 

In 1993 the Company commissioned a series of tapestries for the Ambulatory at Mercers’ Hall, to be made at the Tapestry Studio, West Dean, Chichester. The tapestries were all designed by Dr Bernard Watney (1922-1998), the originator of the scheme.

 

The Maiden Tapestry was woven by Penny Bush, of The Tapestry Studio, in 1993. It was woven to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the granting of the Company’s 1st Charter by Richard II on 13 January 1394. The maiden is the coat of arms and symbol of the Company. The design is based on a 1634 representation of the maiden in the Book of Wardens’ Arms in the Company Archives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Martyr Tapestry was woven by Caron Penney and Philip Sanderson at The Tapestry Studio, in 1996 and hung at Mercers’ Hall in July 1996. The design for this tapestry is adapted from an early thirteenth century enamelled limoges reliquary châsse, showing the murder of Thomas Becket, in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries. The Victoria and Albert Museum also own an almost identical châsse. Both would have claimed to contain the relics of the saint. The tapestry was woven to commemorate the Company’s links with Thomas Becket.

The Map Tapestry was woven by Caron Penney and Philip Sanderson at The Tapestry Studio in 1998. The design is based on a detail from an engraved map held in the Museum of London, dated between 1547 and 1559, showing the first Mercers’ Hall, with tessellated roof in the foreground.