Coordinates: 51°30′56″N 0°05′43″W / 51.515678°N 0.095353°W / 51.515678; -0.095353
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Livery company of the City of London
51°30′56″N 0°05′43″W / 51.515678°N 0.095353°W / 51.515678; -0.095353
Wax Chandlers
Truth is the Light
Wax Chandlers\' Hall,
Gresham Street, London
(since 1501)
before 1330
Royal Charter 1484 (Richard III)
Beeswax products
20th
Dame Fiona Woolf
Wax Chandlers\' Company
The Worshipful Company of Wax Chandlers is one of the oldest livery companies of the City of London, with one of the smallest memberships (about 120).
The Wax Chandlers\' Company, ranked 20th in the City Livery Company order of precedence, has an association with the Church of St Vedast alias Foster in nearby Foster Lane.
The Company received a Grant of Arms from Sir Thomas Holme, Clarenceux King of Arms, on 3 February 1485, the year following the College of Arms\' foundation; the Charter of foundation of the College of Arms and that incorporating the city of Gloucester are the only known Charters of Richard III other than that which established the Wax Chandlers\' Company. There were minor changes (grant of supporters and their modification), but not to the escutcheon or crest, in 1530 and 1536.
The Company’s extant armorial bearings, as confirmed in the Visitation of London in 1630, are blazoned:
Shield: Azure on a Chevron Argent three Roses Gules seeded Or between three Mortars royal Or. (A mortar is a type of candle-holder, similar to the mortar of a pestle-and-mortar; a mortar royal is particularly splendid.)
Crest: On a wreath Or and Gules a Maiden vested in a Surcoat of Cloth of Or furred with Ermine, kneeling among divers Flowers Proper and making thereof a Garland.
Mantling: Azure doubled Ermine.
Supporters (granted in 1530, modified in 1536, but reverting to the 1530 version in 1630): On either side a Unicorn Argent gorged with a Garland of various Flowers Proper, the Horn wreathed Or and Gules.
