Project – Company Banner – Worshipful Company of Broderers

The Worshipful Company of Broderers of Lochac needed a banner to mark our presence in court during presentations to Their Majesties, for procession at Guild events and on other such occasions requiring suitable panoply.

After consultation with the Company, Mistress Rowan Perigrynne designed the banner in 2003, based on the banner of an Italian merchant town mid 15th c, adapted to our needs.

The centre rondel has been appropriated for the badge of the Company
The supporters have been replaced by two patron saints of embroidery (St Francis and St Claire) and our two founders – Mistress Bess Haddon of York (first Guildmaster) and Mistress Keridwen the Mouse (first Patron)
The text motto has become the Company name
The border devices have become the devices of our Kingdom and the Masters of the Company
The crowned ‘Liberatis’ of the Italian free states has become the crowned ‘Lochac’
The background devices have become the devices of the members of the Company of apprentice and journeyman rank.

The field of the banner is silk brocade, fretted with gold braid. The central rondel is worked in gold silk and gold jap, couched directly onto the red silk. The Lochac designs are worked in gold jap and twist, embellished with seed pearls, garnets and lapis beads. The devices and figures are worked in splitstich on silk, then appliquéd onto the banner. The banner is edged with bicoloured fringing in red and blue, and lined with red silk left over from the Pelican Cloak project. The finished banner is approximately 60cm wide x 1m high, with 40 ‘set’ pieces of embroidery and over 20 devices.

The majority of the individual devices and Lochac devices were returned by 2007, but the banner could not be constructed until all the gold Lochac edge pieces were completed. A second round of kits was sent out in 2008 and a full set of edge pieces were returned by January 2009. The banner was constructed in time for the Company presentations made at court at Rowany Festival in April 2009.

There are still some pieces in progress, and the banner will continue to grow richer as members of the Company pass their gradings and have their devices registered.