The Bakers' Arms

William Kedward, a baker, issued this trade token, worth a half penny, for his business at the Hermitage Dock, Wapping, Middlesex.

Boyne & Williamson (1889) reference London number 1346; Obv inscription: WILLIAM.KEDWARD.BAKER (around field, in Roman capitals) Device = HIS / HALFE / PENY (in three lines of Roman capitals, in field); Rev inscription: AT.THE.HERMETTAGE (around field, in Roman capitals) Device = The Bakers' arms (in field).

See also token number 8242 in the Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles, 62, The Norweb Collection: Tokens of the British Isles 1575-1750, Part VIII - Middlesex and Uncertain Pieces. The arms of the Worshipful Company of Bakers are: Gules three Garbs Or on a chief barry wavy of six Argent and Azure two anchors Or cabled Gules over all issuant from a cloud proper radiated in chief Or a cubit arm descending therefrom vested Argent cuffed Sable the hand proper holding a balance (J. Bromley, The Armorial Bearings of the Guilds of London: a record of the heraldry of the surviving companies with historical notes; with...[illustrations] by Heather Child...(London, 1960). The anchors are often omitted as they are on this example. The Hermitage Dock, Wapping, named after a hermitage previously on the site, was in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.