The Worshipful Company of Tallow Chandlers is one of the ancient Livery Companies of the City of London. The organisation, which engaged not only in tallow candle making but also in the trade of oils, first received a Royal Charter in 1462.
Traditionally tallow chandlers operated separately from wax chandlers: beeswax candles customarily being used in churches, while tallow (animal fat) candles were generally used in homes. As is the case with most other Livery Companies, the Tallow Chandlers' Company is no longer a trade association of candlemakers, its decline precipitated by the advent of electric lighting. The Company now exists as a charitable institution, and supports education in oil-related fields.
The company ranks twenty-first in the order of precedence of City Livery Companies. Its motto is Ecce Agnus Dei, Ecce Qui Tollit Peccata Mundi: Latin for Behold the Lamb of God, Who Takes Away the Sins of the World, in reference to Jesus.
Famous quotes containing the words company and/or tallow:
“Endeavor, as much as you can, to keep company with people above you.... Do not mistake, when I say company above you, and think that I mean with regard to their birth; that is the least consideration; but I mean with regard to their merit, and the light in which the world considers them.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“the young men who watch us from the curbs:
They hold the glaze of wonder in their stare
Our crooked backs, hands fetid as old herbs,
The tallow eyes, wax face, the foreign hair!”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)