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拍品专文
This badge is part of a small group of surviving gold jewels enamelled en ronde de bosse and one of two livery badges, one being the Dunstable Jewel now in the British Museum, London (Acc. no.1966,0703.1). Our jewel is clearly linked to the Dunstable Jewel stylistically and technically. It was made around the same time and both depict the same heraldic device: a swan gorged with a coronet of six fleur-de-lys, although the present lot may have lost its chain and was later fitted in this 15th century crowned frame of gothic scrolls.
As with the Dunstable Jewel, the swan’s gold body is completely covered in white enamel with its eyes and part of its beak in black enamel. This technique of enamelling in the round was first developed in the mid-14th century and used on small buttons and brooches before being perfected in Paris in 1400 for miniature figural ornaments. However, there are records of London goldsmiths either native or foreign producing similar enamel work during the same period for the Royal court such as the Reliquary of the Order of the Holy Spirit, 1380-1390 now in the Louvre Museum, Paris (MR 552).
HERALDIC DEVICE AND LIVERY BADGE
This jewel is an heraldic livery badge. Livery badges often took the form of the heraldic device of an important figure. Less costly versions were worn as a mark of fealty and were especially common from the middle of the 14th century until the end of the 15th century. First created to be worn at tournaments and courtly celebrations, they could be displayed in numerous positions but usually on the upper left sleeve, on the left breast, on a livery collar or as a hat pin.
Badges rapidly became a symbol of power used to intimidate the less powerful. In England Parliament tried unsuccessfully in 1384 to ban badges: '...those who wear them are flown with such insolent arrogance that they do not shrink from practising (sic) with reckless effrontery various kinds of extortion in the surrounding countryside ... and it is certainly the boldness inspired by these badges that makes them unafraid to do these things'. (C. Given-Wilson, Richard II and the Higher Nobility, in A. Goodman and J. Gillespie (eds): Richard II: The Art of Kingship, Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 125). But it was not until Henry IV (1367-1413) that the distribution of badges was restricted to the king who issued them only to esquires and more senior ranks until the statute of limitation of 1506 forbade issuing livery badges for men of rank unless the livery was covered by a royal licence, eventually reserving livery badges to those directly connected to the monarch.
These badges are mentioned in inventories and seen in painting such as the chained white stag worn by King Richard II and the angels surrounding the Virgin Mary in the Wilton Diptych (circa 1395-1399) in the National Gallery, London. They were usually made in silver, gilded copper, pewter or lead, to be widely distributed. A late medieval pewter badge in the shape of a gorged chained swan, a cheaper alternative to the present lot, is now in the Museum of London (A20182). The only surviving example directly comparable to the Rothschild swan is the Dunstable swan found in a Dominican Priory in Dunstable, believed to be linked to the Bohun family and to the Royal House of Lancaster.
THE KNIGHT OF THE SWAN
The use of the swan as an heraldic device derives from a group of old French crusader songs called chansons de geste dating from the 12th century which recount the story of a knight who lands on a shore in a boat towed by a swan and is rewarded for his courage with lands and a wife until the swan returns, taking the knight away. The legend of the Knight of the Swan was popularised by the crusade historian Guillaume de Tyr (c.1130-c1184) and widely depicted in illuminated manuscripts such as the Talbot Shrewsbury Book dated circa 1444-1445, and became associated with Godefroy de Bouillon (c. 1058-1100) duke of Northern Lorraine, hero of the First Crusade and first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Although Godefroy de Bouillon had no legitimate issue, he had many descendants in the European aristocracy who used the swan as an heraldic device such as Marie de Clèves, duchesse d’Orléans (1426-1487) and Jean, duc de Berry (1340-1416).
A ROYAL LANCASTRIAN JEWEL
It is in England that the gorged swan was adopted by the Bohun family from the 13th century starting with Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford (1276-1322). When the male line died out with the 7th Earl of Hereford (1341-1373) the gorged swan was used by his two daughters Eleanor de Bohun (c.1366-1399) who married Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester (1355-1397) and Mary de Bohun (c.1368-1394) who married Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster and the future King Henry IV (1367-1413) and thereafter by their descendants. Following the accession to the throne of Henry IV, the badge was used on the livery of the Prince of Wales, first Henry of Monmouth (1386-1422) and then Edward of Westminster (1453-1471) whose mother Margaret of Anjou had the swan livery badge given to all the gentlemen of Cheshire.
Given this royal connection combined with the lavishness of this jewel, it is probable that this swan was connected to the Royal Court of Henry IV and Edward of Westminster although who commissioned it remains unknown.
As with the Dunstable Jewel, the swan’s gold body is completely covered in white enamel with its eyes and part of its beak in black enamel. This technique of enamelling in the round was first developed in the mid-14th century and used on small buttons and brooches before being perfected in Paris in 1400 for miniature figural ornaments. However, there are records of London goldsmiths either native or foreign producing similar enamel work during the same period for the Royal court such as the Reliquary of the Order of the Holy Spirit, 1380-1390 now in the Louvre Museum, Paris (MR 552).
HERALDIC DEVICE AND LIVERY BADGE
This jewel is an heraldic livery badge. Livery badges often took the form of the heraldic device of an important figure. Less costly versions were worn as a mark of fealty and were especially common from the middle of the 14th century until the end of the 15th century. First created to be worn at tournaments and courtly celebrations, they could be displayed in numerous positions but usually on the upper left sleeve, on the left breast, on a livery collar or as a hat pin.
Badges rapidly became a symbol of power used to intimidate the less powerful. In England Parliament tried unsuccessfully in 1384 to ban badges: '...those who wear them are flown with such insolent arrogance that they do not shrink from practising (sic) with reckless effrontery various kinds of extortion in the surrounding countryside ... and it is certainly the boldness inspired by these badges that makes them unafraid to do these things'. (C. Given-Wilson, Richard II and the Higher Nobility, in A. Goodman and J. Gillespie (eds): Richard II: The Art of Kingship, Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 125). But it was not until Henry IV (1367-1413) that the distribution of badges was restricted to the king who issued them only to esquires and more senior ranks until the statute of limitation of 1506 forbade issuing livery badges for men of rank unless the livery was covered by a royal licence, eventually reserving livery badges to those directly connected to the monarch.
These badges are mentioned in inventories and seen in painting such as the chained white stag worn by King Richard II and the angels surrounding the Virgin Mary in the Wilton Diptych (circa 1395-1399) in the National Gallery, London. They were usually made in silver, gilded copper, pewter or lead, to be widely distributed. A late medieval pewter badge in the shape of a gorged chained swan, a cheaper alternative to the present lot, is now in the Museum of London (A20182). The only surviving example directly comparable to the Rothschild swan is the Dunstable swan found in a Dominican Priory in Dunstable, believed to be linked to the Bohun family and to the Royal House of Lancaster.
THE KNIGHT OF THE SWAN
The use of the swan as an heraldic device derives from a group of old French crusader songs called chansons de geste dating from the 12th century which recount the story of a knight who lands on a shore in a boat towed by a swan and is rewarded for his courage with lands and a wife until the swan returns, taking the knight away. The legend of the Knight of the Swan was popularised by the crusade historian Guillaume de Tyr (c.1130-c1184) and widely depicted in illuminated manuscripts such as the Talbot Shrewsbury Book dated circa 1444-1445, and became associated with Godefroy de Bouillon (c. 1058-1100) duke of Northern Lorraine, hero of the First Crusade and first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Although Godefroy de Bouillon had no legitimate issue, he had many descendants in the European aristocracy who used the swan as an heraldic device such as Marie de Clèves, duchesse d’Orléans (1426-1487) and Jean, duc de Berry (1340-1416).
A ROYAL LANCASTRIAN JEWEL
It is in England that the gorged swan was adopted by the Bohun family from the 13th century starting with Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford (1276-1322). When the male line died out with the 7th Earl of Hereford (1341-1373) the gorged swan was used by his two daughters Eleanor de Bohun (c.1366-1399) who married Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester (1355-1397) and Mary de Bohun (c.1368-1394) who married Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster and the future King Henry IV (1367-1413) and thereafter by their descendants. Following the accession to the throne of Henry IV, the badge was used on the livery of the Prince of Wales, first Henry of Monmouth (1386-1422) and then Edward of Westminster (1453-1471) whose mother Margaret of Anjou had the swan livery badge given to all the gentlemen of Cheshire.
Given this royal connection combined with the lavishness of this jewel, it is probable that this swan was connected to the Royal Court of Henry IV and Edward of Westminster although who commissioned it remains unknown.