"Clive D. W. Feather" wrote:

In article , Ian Jelf
writes
(Incidentally, the "Howdah" was a quite common guild symbol,
[...]
I *think* it might even appear on the coat of arms of the Mercers'
Company in London, too but I'm not in a position to check that out from
where I'm posting at the moment.

Checked. No.

On their web site, the shield is shown as gules, a woman's head and
shoulders cut off by a wreath argent and wearing a coronet with 8 points
surmounted by balls [1], all within a very fancy [2] bordure argent. No
supporters. Crest is the same woman. Motto "HONOR DEO".

The Mercer's shield is on the wall down the corridor from my office, and
seems to be just as you descibe here too. All I can add is that the
wreath and border seem to be cloud-like in appearance, as are the balls,
which are also a mixture of gules/argent. The whole thing looks a lot
more stylised/artistic than the other Company shields.