The Man and Pipe ?

John Skarvill, a distiller (someone who produces alcoholic spirits), issued this trade token, worth a half penny, for his business at Holborn Bridge, Middlesex.

Boyne & Williamson (1889) reference London number 1466. Obv inscription: IOHN. SKARVILL. AT. HOLBORN (around field, in Roman capitals) Device = A man holding a club and smoking a pipe (in field); Rev inscription: BRIDGE. DISTILLER.1667 (around field, in Roman capitals) Device = HIS / HALFE / PENNY / I.I.S. (triad of initials in Roman capitals, in field).

'John Skarvill (Skarvile), Distiller, bound four apprentices 1663-73', C. Webb ‘London Livery Company Apprenticeship Registers’ (London, 1996-, xi. 39). See also token numbers 7109a and 7109b in the Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles, 59, The Norweb Collection: Tokens of the British Isles 1575-1750, Part VII - City of London. Holborn Bridge lay 'at the east end of Holborn Hill and north end of Fleet Market over the Fleet, at its junction with the Holborn, when the streams flowed openly through the City' (see Henry A. Harben, A dictionary of London (London, 1918), in the ward of Farrindon Without, in the City of London.