Royal Jubilee Banner
It was a great honour to have been asked to make this historic artwork for the Queen in celebration of her Diamond Jubilee. The Royal Jubilee Banner hung from the stern of the royal barge, the Spirit of Chartwell, as it made its journey up the River Thames from Battersea to London Bridge for the Thames Diamond Jubilee procession.
Aboard HMS Medway at the Ministry of Defence, I met with Prince Charles to discuss the designs for the banner. He granted me access to the College of Arms who are responsible for UK heraldry, as any changes to a coat of arms for official purposes must be sanctioned. My design depicting the Coronation Crown, rather than the more traditional shield, and flanked by the lion and unicorn was approved. When I said I wanted to include Dieu Et Mon Droit, the motto for the British Monarch, they showed me the original manuscript from 1198.
The banner is embroidered with more than half a million golden buttons – a mixture of modern hand dyed and beautiful old military buttons provided by the army and navy. Around the border, teased from metallic thread, are all the Coronations from William I in 1066 to Queen Elizabeth II in 1952.
The banner now hangs in the Livery Hall, at The Haberdashers Company, one of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies of London. The Haberdashers have traditionally taken part in the river pageants for hundreds of years, and their association with buttons, ribbons and threads make a perfect home for The Royal Jubilee Banner.
One of the great traditions of London is the Pearly Kings and Queens who have been embellishing their magnificent suits with pearl buttons since the mid-19th century. Their suits, hats and dresses handed down together with hereditary titles, are sewn with symbols – anchors, crosses, stars, moons, suns, flowers, diamonds, their distinctive costumes having sprung from the sinking of a big cargo ship in the Thames carrying pearl buttons from Japan in the 1860s.
I like to think this art work dovetails two very different Royal traditions whose histories have both been shaped by the Royal River Thames.
