Display of Heraldic Helmet Mantle and Largesse Items

These items were displayed as part of an A&S display/competition at (I believe) Fall Coronation in 2013. The competition required that an A&S project be displayed as well as items for largesse. The following is the documentation that was provided with my entry.

Mantles were attached to helmets during the Tournament and on the battlefield.  Originally they were thought to be used to shield the wearer’s neck from the sun, and later were used to denote the wearer’s heraldry. The mantle included the main color and main metal of the wearer’s arms.  Oftentimes, shield shaped appliqued pieces also displayed the arms and related arms of the wearer.  The mantle in this project is based on a heraldic mantle from the Gruyeres castle, dated from the 3^rd quarter of the 15^th century. (This is a castle in Switzerland, used by the Counts of the House of Gruyeres from the 11^th to the 16^th century and remains open as a museum.) Examples of this type of mantle are also found in illuminated manuscripts and other sources.

This is the extant example, a 15^th C  Mantle found at Gruyeres Castle. This pictures was taken from this source.

This project includes the main color (sable) and main metal (or) from my own arms. The shields appliqued on the mantle include my own arms and the awards that I have received. The extant example includes associated heraldry and I thought this would be in keeping with period practice.  The shields are embroidered using the period technique of the Bayeux stitch which came into use during the Norman era and is especially well known for its use in the Bayeux Tapestry. (The figures were hand drawn on linen; stitched; the edges folded over and sewn down using a period stitch, the whip stitch). The mantle is linen which is what would have been used in period and is hand sewn using period stitches (running and hem stitches).

The associated largesse pieces are inspired from pieces which I have received from the Crown or at events in the past. The first group consists of linen trinket holders which are sewn from linen in red and white for AEthelmearc, using period stitches (running and whip stitches). These can be used for holding token, favors, or trinkets or the second part of the largesse offering. These are designed to slip over a belt and are easily held in place in this manner.  A pin can be used to further secure it.

The second part consists of small booklets with an illumination of the Æthelmearc populace badge. These small booklets are made from heavy paper which is illuminated in the traditional manner using watercolor paint. The figures are all hand drawn and outlined in ink and then painted.  In period, the gold would be gold leaf but due to cost and lack of familiarity with working with this material, I substituted an acrylic paint. These can be used to make notes at events, or used by retainers to make notes for Royalty, or various other uses. The original which I used as inspiration for the project was similarly tied together. While not necessarily a period bookbinding method, I thought this was the most practical as it allows anyone the ability to easily replace the pages when full/used by simply untying the strings and substituting new pages. In this way the cover can be retained and reused.  The two simple threads of red and white are strong yet thin enough to reduce bulk.

These items are associated to the main project-the heraldic helmet mantle- by their use of heraldry to indicate the Kingdom of Æthelmearc, and in the use of the main color and metal in the choice of linen colors as used in the mantle.

Note: I made more of the booklets and donated them as largesse for Kingdom 12th Night when the Autocrat made a call for largesse gifts, in the spirit of the tradition of Twelfth Night.

Sources:

“Archaeological Sewing techniques”, 5 Feb 2010, <http://heatherrosejones.com/archaeologicalsewing/index.html>
Barber , Richard & Juliet Barker.  Tournaments: Jousts, Chivalry and Pageants in the Middle Ages, Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2000.
Boas,  Adrian J.   Crusader Archaeology: The Material Culture of the Latin East.(Routledge, 1999) available on GoogleBooks at  <http://books.google.com/books?id=IKsJ aVmc1EC>.
Brandenburg Purvsuivant, (1413-1471  Bristish Library-ms Add 15681 Folio154v Neubecker , pg 19), Jan 2009,  http://www.boryssnorc.com/content/view/12/4/
Eve, George W.  Decorative Heraldry: A Practical Handbook of Its Artistic Treatment (G. Bell & Sons, 1908, Original from the University of California Digitized Nov 29, 2007 on GoogleBooks , available at and viewed 18 Feb 2009,  <http://books.google.com/books?id=6MBHAAAAIAAJ>.)
Extant Originals-European medieval, Heraldic mantle, Mar 2013, www.kostym.cz/Anglicky/l_0110.htm>
Hopkins, Andrea.  A Chronicle History of Knights. NY: Barnes and Nobles Books, 2004.
Website, Is this Stitch Period (#5 of a Series): Applique: ALay On! by Christian de Holacombe, West Kingdom Needleworkers Guild Deputy, Feb 2009, <http://www.bayrose.org/wkneedle/Articles/applique.html
 “Period stitches”, Jan 2009, March 2010,  http://jauncourt.i8.com/stitches.htm (referenced information on running stitch, back stitch, and over stitched or over sewn, as well as Hem treatments including running, whip stitch)
“Period stitches and extant examples”, March 2010,  <http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc carlson/cloth/stitches.htm>
Walther, Ingo F and Norbert Wolf.  Codices Illustres: The World’s Most Famous Illuminated Manuscripts, 400 to 1600.  Italy: Taschen, 2001.