Coronation Ball
30th June 2023Stationers’ Hall
In 1403, the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London approved the formation of a fraternity or Guild of Stationers (booksellers who copied and sold manuscript books and writing materials and limners who decorated and illustrated them). By the early 16th century, printers had joined the Stationers' Company and by the mid-century had more or less ousted the manuscript trade. In 1557, the Guild received its Royal Charter and they became a Livery company, numbered 47 in precedence.
On Friday June 30th, 150 Liverymen, Masters, Consorts and Guests gathered in the garden to toast the Stationers with champagne and King Charles’s Coronation Gin in celebration of the 350th anniversary of the rebuilding of Stationers’ Hall after the Great Fire of London.
Once inside their recently refurbished hall, guests were treated to beautifully decorated tables of flowers and candelabras, delicious food, including a dessert with a quill and ink in chocolate and a book made out of white chocolate with Stationers’ Hall written on it. The attention to detail was evident. The evening interludes included historical facts relating to Coronations: Medieval Coronations, Stationers’ Hall’s 350 Years of Coronations and Our Monarch’s Glorious Day.
There was a Heads and Tails Competition that Liveryman, John Scott almost won! Consort, Courtney Lambert did ‘win’ one of the auction prizes: a week in an apartment in France. The proceeds went to the Stationers’ Charities for education, welfare and the Hall. After an evening listening to a great band: 29 Fingers, I joined several other Masters and Consorts as guests of Master Stationer and Newspaper Makers, Moira Sleight and her consort, Colin Wells, for a nightcap in the Master’s apartment. A wonderful evening, a marvellous feast and many delightful conversations with fellow Masters and their Consorts! I shall mark 2173 in my diary and hope to be invited to the celebrations of their 500th!