A watercolour portrait of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Canynges" class="extiw" title="w:Thomas Canynges">Thomas Canynges</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/floruit" class="extiw" title="w:floruit">fl.</a> 1450), who was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Mayor_of_London" class="extiw" title="w:Lord Mayor of London">Lord Mayor of London</a> in 1456–1457 having been elected <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court_of_Aldermen" class="extiw" title="w:Court of Aldermen">Alderman</a> for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldgate" class="extiw" title="w:Aldgate">Aldgate</a> ward in 1445, and a member of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worshipful_Company_of_Grocers" class="extiw" title="w:Worshipful Company of Grocers">Worshipful Company of Grocers</a>. Thomas was the eldest brother of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_II_Canynges" class="extiw" title="w:William II Canynges">William II Canynges</a> (c. 1399–1474), a merchant and shipper from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol" class="extiw" title="w:Bristol">Bristol</a> and one of the wealthiest private citizens of his day.
<p>The portrait was one of a series of 15th-century Lord Mayors painted in watercolour on paper by Roger Leigh. The series places emphasis on the subjects' armorials, shown in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/escutcheons" class="extiw" title="w:escutcheons">escutcheons</a>. Thomas Canynges is shown wearing his aldermanic robes and holding the Canynges arms in his right hand, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/blazon" class="extiw" title="w:blazon">blazon</a> of which is "argent, three Moors' heads couped in profile proper wreathed around the temples of the first and azure": from a description of the arms of his descendant Canning in <cite class="book" style="font-style:normal"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Burke" class="extiw" title="en:Bernard Burke"> Bernard Burke</a> (1884)      <i> The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales: Comprising a Registry of Armorial Bearings from the Earliest to the Present Time</i>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:London" class="extiw" title="w:en:London"><span title="capital and largest city of the United Kingdom">London</span></a>:  Harrison, p. 166  <small><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_Computer_Library_Center" class="extiw" title="en:Online Computer Library Center">OCLC</a>:   <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1647426">1647426</a>. </small></cite> The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London#Arms,_motto_and_flag" class="extiw" title="w:City of London">arms</a> of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London" class="extiw" title="w:City of London">City of London</a> are depicted under his left hand in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pediment" class="extiw" title="w:pediment">pediment</a> of the framed shields.</p>
<div class="fn value">
Roger Leigh (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/floruit" class="extiw" title="w:floruit">fl.</a> 1450).</div>
circa 1450 <div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1450-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902</div>.
<a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk/collage/app?service=external/Item&amp;sp=I%3ALeigh%2C+Roger+%28fl.1450%29%3A%3A&amp;sp=29389&amp;sp=X">[2]</a>; originally uploaded to <a class="external text" href="https://en.wikipedia.org">en.wikipedia</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Lobsterthermidor" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:User:Lobsterthermidor">Lobsterthermidor</a> at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:">English Wikipedia</a> on 11 October 2011.