Fig. 188. Part of an embroidered altar frontal with a rebus at Baunton in Gloucestershire: date, late fifteenth century.
It would be somewhat tedious to extract from the authorities just cited, especially since they are easily accessible, every entry relating to an heraldic ornament or piece of furniture. But with regard to hangings and embroideries the case is somewhat different, inasmuch as numbers of ladies are engaged nowadays in stitch-work of every kind, amongst which heraldic embroidery ought certainly to have a place.
As might be expected, the inventories of Church stuffs furnish us with some of the earliest examples of heraldic embroideries, and often in sufficiently precise terms to enable us to realize what the things looked like.
Thus an inventory taken in 1315 of the ornaments at Christchurch, Canterbury, enumerates such things as a chasuble and five copes, the gift of Katharine Lovel, sewn with arms of divers persons; a white cope of the arms of the King of Scotland; a cope of Peter bishop of Exeter (ob. 1291) of baudekyn 'with biparted shields' (an early example); a cope of John of Alderby bishop of Lincoln, and another of Thomas Burton bishop of Exeter, of green cloth embroidered with shields; an albe with apparels of blue velvet embroidered with shields and fleurs-de-lis; two albes sewn with shields and black letters, and a third of red samite embroidered with shields and popinjays; an albe sewn with lozenges with the arms of the King of England and of Leybourne; an albe sewn with shields and embroidered with letters; an albe sewn with the arms of Northwood and Poynyngs in quadrangles; and an albe, stole, and fanon sewn with divers arms in lozenges with purple frets. The same inventory mentions a vestment of Philip King of France, made, quite properly, of blue cloth with fleurs-de-lis; and a number of vestments with orphreys of the arms of the King of England and of France.
The inventory of the vestry of Westminster Abbey taken in 1388 also contains some interesting heraldic ornaments, such as a frontal with the arms of England and France in red and blue velvet woven with golden leopards and fleurs-de-lis, from the burial of King Edward III; six murrey carpets woven with the new arms of the King of England and of the count of Hainault (in other words, the quartered shield adopted by Edward III in 1340, and the arms of his queen, Philippa of Hainault); four carpets of the arms of the earl of Pembroke; four carpets of red colour woven with white shields having three red fleurs-de-lis, of the gift of Richard Twyford, whose arms they were; five black carpets having in the corners shields of the arms of St. Peter and St. Edward; two green silk cloths sewn with the arms of England, Spain, and Queen Eleanor; a bed with a border with the arms of the King of Scotland; three new copes of a red colour of noble cloth of gold damask, with orphreys of black velvet embroidered with the letters T and A and swans of pearl, the gift of Thomas duke of Gloucester, whose wife was Eleanor Bohun, and her family badge a white swan; a cope of red velvet with gold leopards and a border of blue velvet woven with gold fleurs-de-lis, formerly the lord John of Eltham's, whose fine alabaster tomb in the abbey church has the same arms on his shield.
A St. Paul's inventory of 1402 also contains a few choice examples: a cope of red velvet with gold lions, and orphreys of the collars of the duke of Lancaster and a stag lying in the middle of each collar; a suit of blue cloth of gold powdered with gold crowns in each of which are fixed two ostrich feathers; six copes of red cloth of gold with blue orphreys with golden-hooded falcons and the arms of Queen Anne of Bohemia; three albes and amices of linen cloth with orphreys of red velvet powdered and worked with little angels and the arms of England, given by Queen Isabel; three albes and amices with apparels of red cloth of gold powdered with divers white letters of S and with golden leopards, given by John of Gaunt; two great cushions of silk cloth of blue colour with a white cross throughout, and in each quarter of the cross the golden head of a lion.
The secular documents carry on the story.
Some quite noteworthy items may be found in the account of the expenses of the great wardrobe of King Edward III (1345-48-9): for making a bed of blue taffata for the King powdered with garters containing this word hony soit q mal y pense; for making a jupe of blue taffata for the King's body with Garters and buckles and pendants of silver-gilt; for making 40 clouds for divers of the King's garments, embroidered with gold, silver, and silk, with an E in the middle of gold, garnished with stars throughout the field; for making six pennons for trumpets and clarions against Christmas Day of sindon beaten with the King's arms quarterly; for making of a bed of red worsted given to the lord King by Thomas de Colley powdered with silver bottles having tawny bands and curtains of sindon beaten with white bottles; for making a harness for the lord David King of Scotland of 'blu' velvet with a pale of red velvet and within the pale aforesaid a white rose; for making a harness of white bokeram for the King stencilled with silver, namely, a tunic and shield wrought with the King's word hay hay the wythe swan; by godes soule I am thy man and a crupper, etc. stencilled with silver; for making a doublet for the King of white linen cloth having about the sleeves and bottom a border of green long cloth wrought with clouds and vines of gold and with the King's word it. is. as. it. is.
In 1380 Edmund Mortimer earl of March leaves 'our great bed of black satin embroidered with white lions (the badge of the house of March) and gold roses with scutcheons of the arms of Mortimer and Ulster'; and in 1385 Joan princess of Wales leaves to King Richard her son 'my new bed of red velvet embroidered with ostrich feathers and leopards' heads of gold with branches and leaves issuing from their mouths.'
In 1389 William Pakington archdeacon of Canterbury leaves 'my halling of red with a shield of the King's arms in the midst and with mine own arms in the corners'; and in 1391 Margaret, the wife of Sir William Aldeburgh, leaves (i) a red halling with a border of blue with the arms of Baliol and Aldeburgh, (ii) a red bed embroidered with a tree and recumbent lion and the arms of Aldeburgh and Tillzolf, and (iii) a green bed embroidered with griffins and the arms of Aldeburgh.