Seals: M0173

Title

A "Romeo Coates" motto seal

Technique

Metalwork

Subject

Coates, Robert

Artist

Unknown

Dimensions

Height: 2.4cm
Width: 2.1cm
Depth: 2.1cm

Other materials

Brass

Inscription/signature

"While I live I'll Crow" (inscr. around cock in reverse); the days of the week are also inscribed

Provenance

Presented to the Garrick Club by Charles Elme, 2007

Other number

Gift 1069

The motto "While I live I'll Crow" was indeed the motto adopted by Robert "Romeo" Coates. However this stamp clearly dates from much later than his time in London. The origins of the motto lie with cock fighting and its use is widespread. It is the village motto of Dalston in Cumbria, where it can be seen on litter bins, and even of the Glasgow Southern Medical Society instituted in 1844, on whose logo it appears. The Doncaster showman George Thomas Tuby took it as his family motto - indeed the phrase with the cockerel appear on copper tokens used at Tuby's Luna Park on the South beach at Scarborough. Numerous examples of the seal, in various shapes and sizes, are known to exist.