Old Tin Fire mark insurance house plate plaque sign Royal Exchange Assurance

Description

Royal Exchange Assurance - Londres 1720
The building on the sign is the
Royal Exchange Building
in Lodon.
Never used. New. Very few marks of age signs.
It weights 72g (2.5 oz) and measures 18 by 26 cm.
It was designed to be used in Portugal; it is the reason why London is written as "Londres".
Royal Exchange Assurance history.
The Royal Exchange Assurance emerged from a joint stock insurance enterprise known as Onslow's insurance or Onslow's Bubble. This had been begun as the Mercer's Hall Marine Company, or Undertaking kept at the Royal Exchange for insuring ships and merchandise at sea. A similar enterprise sought incorporation in 1718, but the
Attorney-General
reported against this.
Lord Onslow
then sought a means of avoiding the difficulty by his company acquiring the charters of
Society of Mines Royal
and
Company of Mineral and Battery Works
, which declared itself open for assuring ships and merchandise in March 1719. Their opponents petitioned against this and the Attorney-General reported in May 1719 that the use made of the charters was "unwarrantable". The directors admitted this mistake but requested their own charter in
January 1720
.
The Royal Exchange Assurance survived as an independent company for over two centuries until merging with the
Guardian Assurance Company
in 1968
to form
Guardian Royal Exchange Assurance
. The new company
was acquired by
AXA
of France for
In February 1999. Only then
was announced that the Company would move out of the
Royal Exchange Building
.
The life assurance business was acquired by
Aegon
later that year.