Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/401

 9* s. viii. NOV. 9, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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thorpe). The Warwickshire family bore a fesse between six cross-crosslets, and from them, I imagine, sprang branches which settled in Middlesex, Hants, and Berkshire. The Cambridgeshire family bore a fesse between two chevrons, whence sprang branches in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and Kent.* The Leicestershire family bore a lion rampant, whence the Sussex Peacheys and the Kent branch (note their double descent).

As to the origin of the fesse between two chevrons, these arms almost certainly came from the Fitz- waiters ; but I am at a loss to account for the circumstances under which those of the Warwickshire family were assumed (I imagine that they probably came from the Beauchamps), or the origin of those borne by the Leicestershire family. Other offshoots settled over the middle, east, and south of England, and one so far away as Cornwall, the latter-day descendants of which were most fatally concerned in the loss of the Drummond Castle, that terrible cata- strophe involving the lives of sixteen of the family. This branch bore a lion rampant. GEORGE C. PEACHEY.

AN ANCIENT CHAIR (9 th S. viii. 282). No ancient chair has been "discovered" at Stanford Bishop Church, as nothing of the sort exists there. An old oak chair, part of the furniture of the fabric, was formerly in the church, but was given away to a chance admirer some years ago by a former vicar, and the present one tells me there is now no trace of its whereabouts. The reference by a correspondent as to its possible age is of course complete nonsense. The earliest thing of the kind in this country is the Coronation Chair made for King Edward I. (1296-1300), and now in Westmin- ster Abbey. Mr. Hungerford Pollen is quoted in Litchfield's 'Illustrated History of Furni- ture '(1892) as giving the following descrip- tion of it, taken from an old writer :

" It appears that the King intended, in the first instance, to make the chair in bronze, and that Eldam, the King's workman, had actually begun it. Indeed, some parts were even finished, and tools bought for the clearing up of the casting. How- ever, the King changed his mind, and we have accordingly 100-s. paid for a chair in wood, made after the same pattern as the one which was to be cast in copper ; also 13s. 4e?. for carving, painting, and gilding two small leopards in wood, which were delivered to Master Walter, the King's painter, to be placed upon and on either side of the chair made by him. The wardrobe account of 29 Ed. 1. shows

what differenced, on Sir John Peche-'s tomb in Lullingstone Church.
 * Proved by the presence of these arms, some-

that Master Walter was paid 11. 19s. Id. ' for making a step at the foot of the new chair in which the Scottish stone is placed ; and for the wages of the carpenters and of the painters, and for colours and gold employed, and for the making a covering to cover the said chair.'"

The form of the Abbot's Chair at Glaston- bury, temp. Henry VIII., is probably, of all old oak chairs, best known to the general reader, for it has been reproduced, more or less accurately, thousands of times, and examples may be found in the chancels of almost half the churches in England.

HARRY HEMS.

Fair Park, Exeter.

DESIGNS OF EARLY PRINTERS (9 th S. viii. 265). C. H. Timperley's 'Dictionary of Printers and Printing ' contains many marks of the early printers. That of John Day is represented by the rising sun and a boy awaking his sleeping companions, saying, " Arise for it is Day," evidently a pun upon the name, a custom to which the ancient printers were much attached. The device of Richard Tottel was a circle on which his sign of a hand and star is depicted. On each side of the circle is a scroll containing in its whole length the words "Cum Privilegio." In addition to the above-named work, your correspondent should consult ' Early Dutch, German, and English Printers' Marks,' by J. P. Berjean, 1866 ; the numbers of the Literary World for the present year; and 2 nd S. ix. 98 ; 3 rd S. x. 20. EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

Is not MEGAN mistaken in supposing Tottel's mark to resemble Day's? The former's design was a hand and star, which was also his trade sign, as may be seen in Ames's 'Typographical Antiquities'; but it resembles so closely another sign, that of the nurseryman, the "Hand and Flower," that the mistake is quite intelligible. The hand and star perhaps originated with the story of the wise men of the East and the star of Bethlehem, for a hand in base pointing to a star in chief, with a representation of a group of houses suggestive of Bethlehem, adorned the title-pages of books published by Robert Dexter "in ccemeterio D. Pauli ad Insigne Serpentissenei,"in 1603 ('Bagford Title-Pages'); but Mr. Larwood thought it not unlikely that Tottel adopted the sign from the water- marks on paper, one of the most ancient being a hand either in the position of giving benediction, or in that position called the upright hand, with a star above it. The " Hand and Star " also adorned the title-pages of books printed by Felix Kyngston (' Bagford Title-Pages'). J. H. MACMICHAEL.