The Cockayne Cups

On ceremonial occasions some of the Company plate is displayed at the end of the hall. Livery companies usually possess interesting collections of 'plate' – worked silver and gold items intended for use as well as decoration. Much of the livery companies’ plate was sold or melted down over the centuries to raise money, but the Skinners managed to save several significant pieces from the 1600s and the collection has increased with gifts from members since then.

Most notable are the silver-gilt Cockayne cups. These were made after William Cockayne left £120 in his will of 1599 for the making of five cups in the form of cocks. They were to be used in the annual election of the master and wardens on the feast of Corpus Christi; over 450 years later the cups are still used for this purpose. The heads are removable and the bodies are filled with wine and used to drink the health of the new master and wardens in the ceremony of the Cocks and Caps.

In this ceremony newly elected members of the livery parade the Cockayne cups and five caps, velvet circlets adorned with Company emblems, around the central table in the banqueting hall. The new livery members are usually led by regimental bandsmen so it is a noisy and colourful affair. The procession stops and the outgoing master is given a cap which he places askew on the head of the chief guest; everybody boos loudly as it does not ‘fit’. When it is placed snugly on the new master’s head everybody cheers. This part of the ceremony is thought to be one of the last surviving examples of a common ritual and the origins of the phrase ‘if the cap fits wear it’. The master and master elect then drink each other’s health from a cup and each new warden is crowned with a cap and is toasted from a Cockayne cup in a similar fashion.

 

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