A cased Victorian silver-gilt-mounted claret jug, John Figg, London, 1859

The arms are those of The Worshipful Company of Ironmongers, London; Nicholl, as granted to John Nicholl (1790-1871) of Theydon Garnon, Essex, and Canonbury Place, Islington; and of Rahn.

John Nicholl, a commission agent and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, London, was born at Stratford Green, Essex, on 19 April 1790, the only son of John Nicholl, a brewer, and Mary, daughter of Joseph Miller of Nash Hall, Essex. He was married on 5 October 1822 to Elizabeth Sarah, daughter and heiress of John Rahn of Enfield, Middlesex, and a direct descendant of August Caspar von Rahn who arrived in England at the time of the accession of George II.

Nicholl was enabled by an ample fortune to pursue uninterruptedly his researches in heraldry and genealogy. In 1843 he was elected F.S.A., and in 1859 he served as master of the Ironmongers' Company.

Nicholl collected genealogical notes made in Essex churches in six folio volumes, and filled three folio volumes with Essex pedigrees, and three others with pedigrees of the various families of Nicholl, Nicholls, or Nichols. Of the latter he made three copies, two of which he bequeathed to his own children, and a smaller third copy was left to the College of Arms. Nicholl also compiled, in three volumes, a series of genealogical miscellanea and architectural and landscape sketches and paintings made during two tours made to the continent in 1842 and 1843. In addition, he left manuscript collections for the history of Islington and notes on biblical criticism.

Using the archives of the Ironmongers' Company, he compiled a history of the company in seven folio volumes, embellished with armorial bearings and illuminated initials, and illustrated with drawings of buildings and costumes. The first six of these volumes were presented to the company between 1840 and 1844. Materials relating to his descriptions of buildings are held in the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 1851 he printed for private circulation Some account of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers, of which an improved edition was printed in 1866.

John Nicholl died at Canonbury Place on 7 February 1871.

(Sir Bernard Burke, A Selection of Arms Authorized by The Laws of Heraldry, London, 1860, pp. 84-86; Dictionary of National Biography)

The design of the two figures on the handle of this jug was inspired by the sculpture Ino and Bacchus by John Henry Foley (1818-1874), which was shown at the Great Exhibition of 1851.