Editing Livery (section)

==Etymology ==
"In the ''Black Book'' of 1483, it was laid down that each person should receive '... for his Livery at night, half a chet loaf, one quart of wine. one gallon of ale; and for Winter livery...one percher wax, one candle wax...'"<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Chinnery |first=Victor |title=Oak Furniture: The British Tradition}}</ref>

"Edmund Spenser noted in 1596 that '... the liverye is sayd to be served up all night, that is theyr nyghtes allowances of drinks...'"<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Spenser |first=Edmund |title=View of the State of Ireland |year=1596}}</ref>

In the early inventories of households, in the chambers there are a large number of "Livery Cupboards" recorded, presumably used for storing the Livery. 

During the 12th century, specific colours denoting a great person began to be used for both his soldiers and his civilian followers (the two often overlapped considerably), and the modern sense of the term began to form. Usually two different colours were used together (and often with a device or badge sewn on), but the ways in which they were combined varied with rank. Often the colours used were different each year.{{citation needed|date=August 2012}} In addition to embroidered badges, metal ones were sewn on to clothing, or hung on neck-chains or (by far the most prestigious) [[livery collar]]s. From the 16th century onwards, only the lower-status followers tended to receive clothes in livery colours (whilst the higher status ones received cash) and the term "servant", previously much wider, also began to be restricted to describing the same people. Municipalities and corporations copied the behaviour of the great households.<ref>Françoise Piponnier and Perrine Mane; ''Dress in the Middle Ages''; pp. 133–135, Yale UP, 1997; {{ISBN|0-300-06906-5}}.</ref>

The term is also used to describe [[heraldic badge|badges]], [[buttons]]<ref>[https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O21195/button/ Tin-glazed earthenware livery-button, ca 1651], [[Victoria and Albert Museum|Victoria & Albert museum]] [[Victoria and Albert Museum#Jewellery|jewellery collection]]</ref><ref name="HT&S livery buttons">{{cite web|url=http://hammond-turner.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=29&Itemid=4|title=Button gallery: livery|last=Close|first=Lesley|year=2009|work=Hammond Turner & Sons Birmingham button makers|publisher=Hammond Turner & Sons|access-date=18 March 2010}}</ref> and grander pieces of jewellery containing the [[heraldic]] signs of an individual, which were given by that person to friends, followers and distinguished visitors, as well as (in more modest forms) servants. The grandest of these is the [[livery collar]]. [[William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings|William, Lord Hastings]] the [[favourite]] of King [[Edward IV of England]] had a "Coller of gold of K. Edward's lyverys" valued at the enormous sum of £40 in an inventory of 1489. This would have been similar to the collars worn by Hastings' sister and her husband [[Sir John Donne]] in the ''Donne Triptych'' by [[Hans Memling]] (described in [[Sir John Donne]]).<ref>National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings by Lorne Campbell, 1998, {{ISBN|1-85709-171-X}}  – Hastings' collar p. 389 n. 88</ref> Lords gave their servants lead or [[pewter]] badges to sew onto their clothes.<ref>Jonathan Alexander & Paul Binski (eds), ''Age of Chivalry, Art in Plantagenet England, 1200–1400'', Royal Academy/Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1987, Cat 448; see also Steane, John, [https://books.google.com/books?id=LoLlvnRPY_sC&dq=%22Royal+Gold+Cup%22&pg=PA135 ''The Archaeology of the Medieval English Monarchy''], Routledge, 1999, {{ISBN|978-0-415-19788-5}}</ref> In the 15th century, European royalty sometimes distributed uniform suits of clothes to courtiers, as the House of [[Fugger]], the leading bankers, did to all employees.<ref>[[Georges Duby]] ed., ''A History of Private Life, Vol 2 Revelations of the Medieval World'', 1988 (English translation), p. 578, Belknap Press, Harvard University</ref>

[[File:Auguste Serrure A distraction from chores.jpg|thumb|upright|Footman c. 1780 in braided livery]]

This practice later contracted to the provision of standardized clothing to male servants, often in a colour-scheme distinctive to a particular family. The term most notably referred to the embroidered [[Coat (clothing)|coat]]s, waistcoats, knee breeches and stockings in 18th-century style, worn by [[footman|footmen]] on formal occasions in [[great house|grand houses]]. Plainer clothing in dark colours and without braiding was worn by footmen, chauffeurs and other employees for ordinary duties. For financial reasons, the employment of such servants, and their expensive dress, died out after World War I except in royal households.<ref>"Except at public functions, the last time I saw a footman in livery was in 1921": George Orwell writing in the ''Tribune'' of 3 March 1944</ref>