Liver Bird cufflinks
Liver Bird on a tower of the Royal Liver Building
The Liver bird is the symbol of the city of Liverpool, England.
The earliest known use of a bird to represent the then-town of Liverpool was on its corporate seal, dating from the 1350s. The seal is now held by the British Museum.In 1668 the Earl of Derby gave the town council a mace "engraved with ...a leaver", the first known reference to a liver bird by this name. In 1797 the College of Arms granted official arms to Liverpool, which depicts the bird in pride of place.
Since then the bird has been portrayed in many forms to represent the city. Two birds top the clock towers on the Royal Liver Building, at Liverpool's Pier Head, overlooking the River Mersey. The building, now headquarters to the Royal Liver Assurance, is probably the best-known in the city and was opened in 1911. Each tower is topped by a metal sculpture of a cormorant-like liver bird, designed by Carl Bernard Bartels and constructed by the Bromsgrove Guild.
There are two less well-known liver birds in the city. A third metal bird is on the nearby Mersey Chambers office building, adjacent to the Church of Our Lady and St Nicholas, the parish church of the city of Liverpool. The fourth, a bird carved in stone, topped the original St John's Market building until its demolition in 1964. The stone liver bird is now displayed at the Merseyside Maritime Museum.
