THE WARNER 'GRESHAM GRASSHOPPER' SEAL RING

The Warner ‘Gresham Grasshopper’ Seal Ring

An important 16th century gold signet ring, circa 1560-1575, the oval crystal bezel intaglio carved with the coat of arms of Warner, with tinted foil behind to colour: Or a chevron between three boars’ heads couped sable, in a closed gold mount with tapered shoulders, the underside of the bezel engraved with a grasshopper in green enamel, weight 14.8gm, ring size Q. £10,000-£15,000

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Provenance: This, until now unrecorded ring, is one of a series of ‘Gresham Grasshopper’ seal rings, gifted by the great Tudor financier Sir Thomas Gresham between the years 1560-1575. This ring was inherited through a private family from the 19th century, thence by descent, until circa 2010.

Sir Thomas Gresham (1519-1579)
The Gresham family were an old Norfolk family, merchants and financiers by trade. Sir John Gresham (1495-1556) worked for Henry VIII, Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell.

The young Thomas Gresham, following in his family’s footsteps, served his apprenticeship as a merchant under his uncle Sir John Gresham, dealing principally in woollen cloth and other luxury textiles such as silks and velvets. However his true talents lay elsewhere, like his father Sir Richard Gresham, in making deals in foreign exchange and arranging finance. His father “taught him some of the secrets of exchange dealing in Lombard Street and Antwerp” (Guy, J., p.13). By the 1530s Thomas began working and training within the family business, by this time the Gresham family firm were the largest shippers trading out of London. In 1543, at the age of just 24, Thomas was, again following family tradition, admitted as a liveryman of the Mercers’ Company, leaving England later that year to pursue business in the Low Countries. Quickly earning respect for his adept and skilful play of the financial markets, his trade took him regularly to Antwerp, the principal trading port for cloth in the European markets, and by the 15th century the “commercial capital of Northern Europe” (Guy. J., p.19). Here he began to undertake financial arrangements on behalf of Henry VIII, including smuggling over £30,000 of gold and silver coins into Bologne to pay the king’s mercenaries based in Antwerp.

A shrewd and astute businessman, Thomas Gresham skilfully kept out of the religious fever sweeping back and forth across 16th century Europe and this determined neutrality allowed him to maintain his role as financial agent to the Crown, not only to Henry VIII, but Edward IV, Mary and finally Elizabeth I, negotiating foreign and domestic loans, advising on financial matters, and manipulating the exchange rates to allow him to restructure and reduce the crown debt. Under Elizabeth he was also appointed as ambassador to the Court of Margaret of Parma, Governor of Netherlands.

In 1565 Thomas Gresham agreed to finance and oversee the construction of the Royal Exchange, largely modelled on the Antwerp Bourse, on a site between Lombard Street and Cornhill, a grand and appropriate venue for him and his fellow merchants to conduct their business. After his death in 1579, in his will Thomas Gresham left the Royal Exchange in trust, to be split between the Corporation of London and the Mercers’ Company but both parties being thereafter required to fund Gresham College, the first institution of higher education in London.


Mark Warner (d.1583/1584)

This ring bears the arms of the family of Warner. A potential candidate for these arms was Sir Edward Warner (1511-1565) of Polstead Hall and Little Plumstead in the County of Norfolk, but as Sir Edward bore for his arms: ‘Per bend indented sable and argent’, this cannot be the case.
It is therefore believed that this ring belonged to Mark Warner, of All Hallows, Lombard Street. (Ref: Beacon Genealogical and Heraldic Research).



Mark Warner is recorded as a cloth merchant and a member of the parish of All Hallows, Lombard Street, in the City of London. He was twice married at the church, first to Elizabeth Farthing in 1554 and then Judith Grymson in 1579, and was buried there in January 1583/4. His will (National Archives ref: PROB 11/66/333) lists two daughters, Cicelye and Elizabeth, and a son, John.

The Warner family owned property at Stroud Green in Middlesex but had long been associated with Lombard Street. Mark’s grandfather John and his father Richard both contributed to the building of All Hallows church.

Mark Warner was a member of the Worshipful Company of Drapers, being apprenticed in 1543 and called to the livery in 1552. By 1554 he had become a freeman, in this year he took his first apprentice, William Bocher, followed by a second apprentice James Cranfyld, prior to 1558.

Like Gresham, Warner was not just involved in the cloth trade but also in finance. His name is included in a list of known insurers in London, in business between 1559-1573. (National Archives ref: HCA 24/39).

At this time, high risks were associated with the safe passage of goods by sea. Marine insurance was provided by ‘Lombard Street’ custom (although not yet legislated for). Collectively groups of merchants based around Lombard Street would each loan against part of the cargo of a ship, the loan being dismissed if the vessel floundered, thus insuring the vessel and spreading the risk of overseas trade amongst the merchant community. When, in 1575, the Chamber of Assurances was set up to register insurance contacts, it was Gresham’s long time agent Richard Chandler who was given the position and an office inside the Royal Exchange. The quantity and value of overseas deals negotiated by Gresham must surely have necessitated elaborate insurance deals.


Both being cloth merchants, involved in finance and insurance, and both residing and working in Lombard Street, Warner and Gresham’s paths would undoubtedly have crossed.



The Grasshopper Rings

This form of signet ring, with an intaglio carved rock crystal bezel, foiled behind to tint the colours of the coat of arms (allowing impressions to be taken without exposing the colours to hot wax), first appeared in Germany in the early 16th century (Princely Magnificence, cat no. 4 and 7). By the second half of the 16th century this style of ring had made its way to England where it became “the status symbol ‘par excellence’”. (D. Scarisbrick, 1993, p.48).

Through the third quarter of the 16th century Thomas Gresham gifted a series of these rings to acquaintances/business associates, each with a foiled crystal bezel displaying their coat of arms, with an enamelled grasshopper to the underside of the bezel.

The grasshopper was the family crest of the Gresham family, probably derived from their Norman ancestry, being descended from the De Gresses. After becoming citizens of England, the French prefix ‘DE;’ was dropped, and to distinguish them as landowners, the word ‘HAM may have been added, and under this modified name, the family coat of arms granted prior to 1460. The Gresham family coat of arms are: ‘Argent a chevron ermine between three mullets pierced sable’, with a crest: ‘On a mound a grasshopper vert’. These arms are recorded in the Heralds Visitations for the County of Norfolk, 1563 and for the City of London, 1568; these pedigrees indicate the arms were granted to John Gresham (died 1460), the 2x great grandfather of Thomas.


Nine such ‘Gresham grasshopper’ rings are recorded. The Warner ring, until now undiscovered, brings this total to ten.


The recorded examples are:

The Sir William Fleetwood ring, in the British ...