Grinling Gibbons’ Call to Livery (Drapers’ Company Minutes book for the Court of Assistants 1667-1705)
Creator(s): Worshipful Company of Drapers
Date: Entry for 14 October 1684 (contained within Minutes book dated 1667-1705)
Accession Number: DR/MB15
Materials: Work on paper (book)
Location: Drapers’ Hall, Throgmorton Avenue, London EC2N 2DQ
Credit Line (copyright notice for material) : © The Drapers' Company
NOTES ON THE ARTWORK
The next step in Gibbons’ progression through the hierarchy of the Company’s membership was the ‘Call to Livery’, making him a liveryman and full member of the Drapers’ Company. Freemen of the company would be expected to advance to become a liveryman by a vote of the court. For Gibbons, this occurred in 1684 and is recorded in the Drapers’ Company Minutes book for the Court of Assistants, when along with a number of other freemen, he was elected to be ‘taken into the Livery of this Company’.
When officially elevated to the Livery, the candidate is said to be ‘clothed’ in the livery and in the ceremony they don a gown and hood. Correspondingly in this entry the official wording is that the chosen liverymen are referred to as ‘fitt for to bee taken into the Clothing’.
The Company’s livery gown was to be worn on all public occasions and are ceremonial events. The choice of new Livery and the times when the colour was to be changed, were at the discretion of the Master and Wardens. In 1613 a Court resolution was passed setting standards for gowns in an attempt to prevent Liverymen wearing gowns ‘not seemly in so grave and worshipful a Society’. From this date the colours of the gowns and hoods remained unaltered.
Entry in the Drapers’ Company Minutes book for the Court of Assistants recording Gibbons becoming a liveryman © The Drapers' Company
