page_title: Worshipful Company of Barbers
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Worshipful Company of Barbers / History
caption_attribution_description: English: This large-scale work was commissioned to commemorate the grant of a royal charter to the Company of Barbers and the Guild of Surgeons on their merger in 1540. Presumably at the request of his clients, Holbein based the design on that of the miniatures painted on Tudor charters of privileges. Henry did not sit for this last of Holbein's portraits of him. Working from an existing sketch, Holbein painted him not so much as a living person but as an icon.&#91;1&#93; The members of the company, however, were painted as individuals. On the King’s right side are his two physicians, Dr. John Chambers and Sir William Butts and his apothecary Thomas Alsop. The figures of Sir William Butts and the doctor John Chambers are closely related to portraits of them by Holbein (left). On the King’s left side are his Serjeant-Surgeon, Thomas Vicary (Master 1530, 1541, 1546, 1548, 1557), his surgeons, Sir John Ayliffe (Master 1538), James Monforde (Warden 1540, 1543) and Richard Ferris (Master 1551, 1562) and his barbers, Nicholas Simpson (Master 1537), Edmund Harman (Master 1540), and John Penn (Master 1539). Others portrayed and named are Nicholas Alcock, Christopher Salmon (Master 1552) and William Tilley (Warden 1540, 1546). According to the diarist Samuel Pepys, the painting was badly damaged in the Great Fire of London of 1666.&#91;2&#93; It is not clear how much of the original panel was completed by Holbein himself, who died in the year the painting was begun, and how much by others; neither is it known whether those who first added to the work did so under Holbein's supervision. Scholars such as Roy Strong and John Rowlands suspect that the main additions were made after Holbein's death (probably in the last years of Henry VIII's reign), since they are not improvements.&#91;3&#93; Holbein's cartoon for the composition, later much painted over by other hands, reveals his original conception, but the actual painting departs markedly from it in places, for example in the second row of figures on the right and in the background. The inscription is not Holbein's, though it can be dated to before Henry's death in 1547. The men standing in the second row on the right were added in the mid-16th century by an anonymous painter. The painter and restorer Richard Greenbury reworked the painting in the 17th century, so heavily that he entirely covered the original layers of varnish with impasto.&#91;4&#93; In the view of Holbein's biographer Derek Wilson, the result is a "disaster": "A lifeless, oversized king dangles the charter from a limp hand while a row (the second rank was added later) of comparatively diminutive recipients kneel in relevant homage. The treatment is archaic and atypical".&#91;2&#93; References ↑ Stephanie Buck, Hans Holbein, Cologne: Könemann, 1999, ISBN 3829025831, 128. ↑ a b Derek Wilson, Hans Holbein: Portrait of an Unknown Man, London: Pimlico, 2006, ISBN 1844139182, 273. ↑ Rowlands, John, Holbein: The Paintings of Hans Holbein the Younger, Boston: David R. Godine, 1985, ISBN 0879235780, 148–49. ↑ Buck, 127–29.
context_page_description: The Worshipful Company of Barbers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London, and ranks 17th in precedence.
  The Fellowship of Surgeons merged with the Barbers' Company in 1540, forming the Company of Barbers and Surgeons, but after the rising professionalism of the trade broke away in 1745 to form what would become the Royal College of Surgeons.
  The Company no longer retains an association with the hairdressing profession, and principally acts as a charitable institution for medical and surgical causes. In modern times, between one-third and one-half of the Company's liverymen are surgeons, dentists or other medical practitioners.
context_section_description: The first mention of the Barbers' Company occurs in 1308 when Richard le Barbour was elected by the Court of Aldermen to keep order amongst his fellows. Barbers originally aided monks, who were at the time the traditional practitioners of medicine and surgery, because Papal decrees prohibited members of religious orders themselves from spilling blood. In addition to haircutting, hairdressing, and shaving, barbers performed surgery: neck manipulation; cleansing of ears and scalp; draining/lancing of boils, fistulae, and cysts with wicks; bloodletting and leeching; fire cupping; enemas; and the extraction of teeth.
  Soon surgeons with little expertise in the haircutting and shaving arts of the barbers began to join the Company, but in 1368, the surgeons were allowed to form their own, unincorporated Fellowship or Guild. However, the Barbers' Guild retained the power to oversee surgical practices in London. The Barbers' Guild continued this oversight after it became, by Royal Charter of 1462, a Company.
  The Fellowship of Surgeons merged with the Barbers' Company in 1540 by Act of Parliament to form the Company of Barbers and Surgeons. The Act specified that no surgeon could cut hair or shave another and that no barber could practice surgery; the only common activity was to be the extraction of teeth. The barber pole, featuring red and white spiraling stripes, indicated the two crafts (surgery in red and barbering in white). Barbers received higher pay than surgeons until surgeons were entered into British warships during naval wars.
  In order to become a member of the Company, apprentice training would occur for seven years within the household of an experienced barber-surgeon; apprentices would assist in surgical care and gain hands-on experience in tasks such as setting bones and suturing wounds. Once completed, the new member would demonstrate their skills and abilities to Company-appointed examiners. They would then pay a membership fee and join the ranks of the Company.
  The first Master of the Company of Barbers and Surgeons was the superintendent of St Bartholomew's Hospital and royal physician, Thomas Vicary. The presentation of the charter is the subject of a painting by Hans Holbein the Younger, in the collection of the Barbers' Company.
  However, with the rising professionalism of surgery, in 1745 the surgeons broke away from the barbers to form the Company of Surgeons, which became the Royal College of Surgeons in 1800.
  The Company no longer retains an association with the hairdressing profession. It does, however, retain its links with surgery, principally acting as a charitable institution to the benefit of medical and surgical cases. In modern times, between one-third and one-half of the Company's liverymen are surgeons, dentists or other medical practitioners.
caption: Painting by Hans Holbein the Younger of Henry VIII presenting the Barber-Surgeons' Company Charter to the first Master, Thomas Vicary
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