Coat of arms of the Drapers Company

[1] The patent dated 1439 is the earliest surviving such grant of arms made to a corporate body in England.

It shows Greenway (left, with monogram "JG" in a quatrefoil above) and his wife kneeling on either side of the Virgin Mary who is ascending into Heaven.

The mantle (cloth covering the helmet) is blazoned: Gules, doubled argent ("red lined with white") A number of explanations of the symbolism of the Drapers' arms have been postulated.

An image of The Virgin Mary wearing the same tiara is in the margin of the Letters Patent granting the Arms to the Company.

The symbolism is most likely to represent The Assumption of the Virgin; in the margins of the Letters Patent of the Grant, Mary is being crowned by angels.

Another suggestion is that the crowned clouds are mistaken renderings of pyx-canopies, that is veils (as would be sold by drapers) hanging from pyxes.

Arms of the Worshipful Company of Drapers : Azure, three clouds radiated proper each adorned with a triple crown or [ 1 ]
Heraldic achievement of the Worshipful Company of Drapers
Relief sculpture in the 1517 Greenway Porch , St Peter's Church, Tiverton , showing the Apotheosis of the Virgin with the pre- Reformation arms and supporters of the Drapers Company, below
Drapers Company arms, 1517 sculpture, Greenway Porch , St Peter's Church, Tiverton . The clouds are represented by heraldic lines nebulée