File:Fire Fighting Appliances Gilbert 1969 Plate 39.jpg

English: Firemark of the Sun Fire Office with photograph of the entry in the policy register, 1720. The Great Fire of London in 1666 led to the founding of fire insurance companies, which soon formed their own fire brigades. Up to the first quarter of the nineteenth century the greater part of organized fire fighting was carried out by these companies. To distinguish the houses which they had insured against loss by fire, each company fixed its own leaden fire mark on the front of its houses. The company’s firemen then recognized the fire mark, proceeded to fight the fire and sometimes refused their aid if the house did not carry the company’s mark. The companies and dates of the marks exhibited are:

The Sun Fire Office. 1720. Policy 23055. (Established 1710).

The Sun Fire Office. 1733. Policy 60961.

The Hand in Hand Fire and Life Insurance Society. 1773. Policy 88635

(Established 1696).

The Royal Insurance Company. (Established 1845).

The County Fire Office. c. 1860. (Established 1807). The first of these has been restored to its original colouring: with gilded sun face and number and sky-biue background. The numbers on the fire-marks are the numbers of the policies. Fire plates, which are unnumbered, largely replaced marks early in the nineteenth century. Their chief purpose was for advertising the company. Plate 39 from Fire fighting appliances, the descriptive catalogue of the collection in the Science Museum, London.