The Armourers and Brasiers’ Company emerged in 1322 when a group of Armourers and Helmetmakers was granted the right to oversee standards in the making of armour and helmets in and around the City of London. From these humble beginnings it grew in coherence and standing, and in the middle of the Wars of the Roses in 1453 was granted its first charter of incorporation by King Henry VI. In 1515 the Company absorbed the Blademakers.
Its reputation was enhanced in Henry VIII’s reign by an increase in skills which emulated those of the Greenwich armourers from Germany and Italy. By Elizabeth I’s reign, the Company was accepted as equal to the foreign armour makers. In times of peace the Company had diversified into brass making and, when armour went out of use after the Restoration, it turned over to this secondary craft.
Perhaps the LHM warming pan was made during a lull in the Wars of the Roses to warm some lady’s heart as well as her bed.
Queen Anne granted the charter to the Armourers and Brasiers’ Company in 1708.