Incomplete project
This project was never completed due to lack of interest. I've left these research notes here for anyone else who might be interested. Please let me know if you make a garland using this information, and I'll post about it here!
Introduction
In 2002 I became the Kingdom Arts and Sciences champion by winning the pentathlon at our annual A&S event. The official regalia for the champion is a silver cup, but I also got a red baldrick to wear.
Unfortunately the baldrick was showing its age. It was made in AS XXVII, which is to say 11 years previously, and it had had some rough treatment since then. The red was fading and the white had turned pink. And, with all due respect to the artisan (who I'm sure won't mind, actually, because I've talked to her about it) it really was time to replace it with something a bit spiffier.
I was unenthusiastic about making a new baldrick. The problem was that I had never seen heraldic baldricks actually used in period. To me they look like a "Miss Universe" sash more than anything else. Repeated questions on mailing lists haven't shown up any period examples either. I'm not saying there aren't any, but to me it seems more like an SCA cultural artifact than a medieval/renaissane one. And while that might be OK for an armored combat champion, I think that as A&S champion it's appropriate to be a bit pickier.
I got lucky when a discussion the Lochac Worshipful Company of Broiderers mailing list mentioned guildmaster's garlands and gave a link to a picture of one from the Leathersellers guild in London.
I realised that a guildmaster's garland was a quite suitable item of regalia for an arts and sciences champion. After all, the garlands were worn by the acknowledged leaders of their craft. And they're actually period. I talked to the Ealdormere Minister of Regalia and the heralds, and they said it was fine to do it, as long as I avoided any design that would make it look like an SCA crown or coronet (eg. strawberry leaves, used for SCA ducal coronets) or a peerage symbol (eg. laurel wreathes, used by the Order of the Laurel in the SCA).
There were a couple of concerns remaining:
- Hats are not as much "one size fits all" as baldricks. Solution: made an adjustable back panel, plus an inner band which can be padded for extra-small heads.
- Some champions might not want to wear the hat. Solution: they don't have to, just as previous champions didn't have to wear the baldrick (and many didn't - I checked).
Original garlands
My next step was to seek out more pictures of garlands from other sources. I looked through a variety of embroidery books, and also contacted every single Guild in London that I could find. Unfortunately very few of the guilds were able to help me with my request for information about regalia, but a couple got back to me with some interesting information.
In the end, I found the following pictures of guildmasters' garlands:
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Master's crown, Raised work on tawny velvet. The Broderer's Company, London. Found in Elizabethan Embroidery by George Wingfield Digby. |
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A crown from the Worshipful Company of Girdlers. 20th century replica of a 17th century original, after the original was destroyed in the Blitz during the second world war. Found in "Royal School of Needlework: Embroidery Techniques" by Sally Saunders et. al. |
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Garlands worn by the masters of the Clothworkers' Company. Images are from D. E. W. Wickham, "The Deluge of Time" (2 vols, privately published, 2001), graciously sent to me by the archivist of the company. None of the Clothworkers' garlands survive. The first image shows a 19th century antiquarian engraving of (then-)surviving garland from around 1600. The second picture shows a surviving scrap of embroidery from a garland. The third picture shows Charles Frederick Angell, Master of the guild 1858-1859, with a garland on the table beside him. |
My garland
Looking at the existing garlands, it seems that the most sensible design would either be the simple band used by the Broiderers Company, or the soft-crowned hat with the band used by the Leathersellers. Either way, it's going to need the band embroidered and then I can figure out whether or not I want to add a crown later.
For the design, I have chosen to use a red velvet background, with the words "ARS ET SCIENTIA" around the band, along with the Ealdormerian arms placed centre-front.
The peak of guild regalia wearing (in England at least, which is where most of my information comes from) seems to have been the 15th-16th century. Given the time span covered by the SCA, I am going to try to push my design as early as I can, to the 15th century or even a little earlier than that period, so that the hat will have more appeal to a wide range of potential wearers.
Using this time period as a guideline, I went looking for examples of 15th century embroideries with lettering.
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Fragment of an altar frontal, 1470-1500 (from King & Levey's "Embroidery in Britain from 1200-1750") showing gothic lettering. |
Bibliography
History of garlands and extant embroideries
- Donald King and Santina Levey, The Victoria and Albert Museum's Textile Collection: Embroidery in Britain from 1200 to 1750, V&A Publications, 1993
- George Wingfield Digby, Elizabethan Embroidery, Thomas Yoseloff, 1963
- Sally Saunders et al, Royal School of Needlework: Embroidery Techniques, B. T. Batsford Ltd, London, 1998
- D. E. W. Wickham, The Deluge of Time, 2 vols, privately published, 2001
Techniques
- Sally Saunders et al, Royal School of Needlework: Embroidery Techniques, B. T. Batsford Ltd, London, 1998