Tankard

A conical tankard of pint capacity with a thickened everted rim and decorative fillets around the lower body and base. The hollow-cast swept handle with escutcheon and flush attachments is marked with an ownership triad of ‘M’ over ‘A’ and ‘M’. The body is engraved with a hatched shield with the inscription ‘A Mann/ Grey Coat Hospital/ Grey Coat Strt/ Westr’. There is a crowned ‘WR’ verification mark below the rim to the left of the handle and a Westminster portcullis verification on the front. The faint beaded circular touch inside the base with a ‘G’ (or ‘C’?) ‘S’ is unidentified. Date: c.1800-30.

The Grey Coat Hospital charity school was established in 1698 for the education of the poor of the parish of St Margaret’s, Westminster. Pupils were taught to read, write and ‘cast accounts’ and were instructed in ‘the principles of the Christian religion’ to fit them for ‘trades and employments’. In 1701 the School Governors purchased the old workhouse in Tutle fields (Tothill Fields) from Westminster Abbey, took in boarders and admitted girls for the first time. The management of the school was eventually transferred to the care of the Church of England in 1874 and the fortunes of the school and the welfare of the pupils was transformed with the appointment of Elsie as Headmistress. For further information see History of the Grey Coat Hospital, Westminster, 1698-1939. (Chetham-Strode, 1939.)