Reference Number: L0149
Date: [c.late 18th or 19th century]
Extent: 6 candlesticks
Materials: Brass
Size: 200mm (h)
Provenance: A pair were presented to Lloyd’s by Alan Margetson in 1930. A second pair were presented to Lloyd’s in 1986 by Sir Peter Mill. A third pair of candlesticks was presented to Lloyd’s by Wellington Underwriting Agency to mark the Tercentenary of Lloyd’s in 1988.

Description: One of a set of six Lloyd’s Coffee House brass candlesticks, with barrel shaped stems and square bases, each corner stamped with ‘Lloyds’. These are from Lloyd’s rooms the Royal Exchange, although the date is uncertain. In 1930, Lloyd’s Collection had a brass candlestick recovered from the 1838 fire at the Royal Exchange, presented in 1923 by Holland Martin, but this no longer exists in the Collection. Sale ‘by the Candle’ or ‘by Inch of the Candle’ was a form of auction in coffee houses, from the later seventeenth century and throughout the eighteenth century, as advertised in the newspapers of the time. Such auctions became a common event at Edward Lloyd’s Coffee House, and continued after the move to the Royal Exchange in 1774. Bidding started when the candle was lit and stopped after it had burnt an inch.

Notes: See L0457. For more information on candle auctions see the Underwriting Souls Exhibition “The Origins of Lloyd’s”.