Fig. 137. Stall-plate, as a banner, of Richard Nevill earl of Salisbury, c. 1436.
Fig. 138. Stall-plate, as a banner, of Sir John Grey of Ruthin, c. 1439.
Two similar displays of heraldic achievements are to be found in a manuscript at the Heralds' College.[12] In one of these the arms, etc. of Sir Richard Nanfant (ob. 1506-7) are painted upon a quadrangular field party of blue and green. In the other the impaled shield of Sir Richard and his dame, upheld by an angel, is painted upon a ground having the upper three-fourths red and the fourth part pale pink.[13]
In modern practice there is no conceivable reason why banners for the display of arms should not be more widely adopted; not only as banners proper, to fly upon a staff, but in decorative art, such as painting, sculpture, and embroidery. Both the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries regularly notify their existence in Burlington House by displaying banners of their arms over their apartments, and their example is one that might be followed by other corporations entitled to bear arms. On the use of banners by individuals it is unnecessary to enter after the useful series of examples and usages thereof already noted.
The curious flags known as standards, which were in use during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, seem to have been borne simply for display in pageants or at funerals. For decorative purposes they are most effective, and as they were anciently borne by men of every degree down to and including esquires, they might with much advantage from the artistic standpoint again be devised and brought into use.
A standard (fig. [139]) was a long narrow flag with the lower edge horizontal, and the upper gradually descending from the staff to the extremity, which was split into two rounded ends. A compartment next the staff always contained the arms of St. George. The rest of the ground not infrequently was formed of two, three, or four horizontal stripes of the livery colours of the owner, and divided into three sections by two slanting bands with his word, reason, or motto. Upon the section next to the St. George's cross was generally displayed the principal beast or other device of the bearer and in later times the crest on a torse, while the other sections and the field in general were powdered with badges or rebuses. The whole was fringed of the livery colours.