What the warrant is for
A Royal Warrant is granted for a trade. Ours is for the making of insignia.
It records a history of orders, decorations and medals supplied to the Royal Household over many years, to the standard required of the Household.
The practical effect is felt at the bench rather than on the letterhead.
The same hands. The same enamels. The same hallmark.
The standard does not change with the recipient.
His Majesty The KingIn whose name the warrant is held.
A Royal Warrant of Appointment is not bought, applied for on a whim, or given as a compliment.
It is granted to a named individual within a company that has supplied the Royal Household over a period of years. It is subject to review.
It is not an endorsement of a product.
It is a record of work having been found fit, consistently, by people for whom the distinction between excellent and merely acceptable is not an academic one.
Six hundred and twenty companies hold a Royal Warrant of Appointment. Six hundred and four are granted by His Majesty The King and thirty-six by Her Majesty The Queen. Nine of the six hundred and twenty are listed for ceremonial work, medals and insignia. Cleave is one of the nine.
The wording beneath the Arms is exact, and every part of it is doing work.
Held, reviewed, and held again.
A warrant is not permanent. It is granted on the evidence of work supplied over years, it is reviewed, and it can be withdrawn.
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January 2008
The first grant
Cleave’s work for the Royal Household is recognised by the grant of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Royal Warrant, as Manufacturers of Insignia.
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January 2009
A second grant
His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales grants his Warrant, as Medallists. A warrant names a trade and nothing wider, and the two named different ones.
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2022
A new reign
On the accession of His Majesty The King, warrants granted by Queen Elizabeth II fell to be reviewed. The Arms displayed on this site are those of the present reign.
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2024
The present grant
By Appointment to His Majesty The King, Manufacturers of Insignia. Cleave is listed as a current holder in the Royal Warrant Holders Association’s own directory.
Keeping the warrant worth holding
Royal Warrant holders belong to the Royal Warrant Holders Association, founded in 1840.
The Association maintains the standards surrounding the Royal Arms and represents the companies and individuals who hold Royal Warrants.
It also supports the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust, which provides training in traditional British crafts — engraving, enamelling, goldsmithing and others among them.
These are the trades on which a house such as ours depends.
They continue only if they are taught.
Cleave is listed in the Association’s directory under Ceremonial, Medals & Insignia, and supports the Goldsmiths’ Centre and its charitable work.