Again, the ADAM AND EVE, which occurs at West Ham, as noticed hereafter, is a very old device as a sign. This example is forty years old at least. Messrs. Larwood and Hotten state (p. 257) that “our first parents were constant _dramatis personæ_ in the mediæval mysteries and pageants;” but both they and Mr. Jewitt overlook the fact that the sign may with equal probability have been derived from the arms of the Fruiterers’ Company,[38] which appear on the halfpenny of Jasper Eve of Springfield in 1669. In this case, however, the device probably was intended as a rebus upon the name. The sign of the THREE PIGEONS is not improbably derived from the arms of the Tallow-chandlers’ Company,[39] since there is no other obvious source from which it can have come. Although Larwood and Hotten seem to regard it as being now a rare sign, there are two cases of it in Essex--one at Stratford, and the other at Halstead. As already stated, the occupation of the tallow-chandler is represented ten times on the Essex tokens of the seventeenth century, either by the arms of the Company, by a man making candles, or by a stick of candles. The latter device appears on the undated farthing of William Newman of Halstead, and may have some connection with the THREE PIGEONS which now exists there, and has certainly done so for at least forty years back. The DOVE AND OLIVE-BRANCH, which is shown on the undated farthing of “George Evanes in Ingatestone,” is also probably a device taken from the arms of this Company. Other arms and emblems belonging to the great trade companies, and appearing commonly on the tokens of the seventeenth century, have now quite disappeared--at least so far as Essex is concerned. For instance, the BARBER-SURGEONS’ ARMS[40] are to be seen on the halfpence of “Thomas Bvll of Mamvdine, 1669,” and of “Henry Carter, Chirvrgeon, in Manitree, 1669.” The GROCERS’ ARMS[41] occur, as already stated, no less than about twenty-five times, either as the Grocers’ Arms, a sugar-loaf, three sugar-loaves, one or more cloves, or a sugar-loaf and cloves combined. The GROCERS’ ARMS and an ESCALOP occur respectively on the two sides of the undated token of “George Nicholson in Tolshon Dacey in S.X.” The sign of the THREE SUGAR-LOAVES still occurs at Sible Hedingham, and has been in existence there for a century at least, as the house is mentioned in an advertisement in the _Chelmsford_ _Chronicle_ on March 9, 1787. It can hardly be called an heraldic sign, as the three sugar-loaves seem only to have been set up by grocers as an emblem of their business. At the present time the house has no sign-board, but the three sugar-loaves are suspended over the door as here shown. There is also a beer-house of the same name in Felstead parish. [Illustration: THREE SUGAR-LOAVES AT SIBLE HEDINGHAM.]