Fire-Marks

The concept of insurance against loss or damage by fire originated in the late seventeenth century, prompted, no doubt by the enormous suffering caused by the Great Fire of London. In the days before the establishment of municipal fire services it was natural for the insurance companies to run their own fire brigades to keep losses to a minimum, and it became the custom during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, for the companies to mark insured property with a distinctive 'fire-mark' or 'plate', some of which even displayed the policy number. Because of the large number of insurance companies and because they were constantly varying the motif on their fire-marks there is now a great variety of these attractive and interesting items still to be seen on the walls of old buildings - perhaps the sun of the Sun Fire Office is the most familiar - and this book illustrates almost two hunded of them.Vince, John is the author of 'Fire-Marks', published 1990 under ISBN 9780785563761 and ISBN 0785563768.