alb3625820
Burse. Culture: British. Dimensions: H. without tassels 19 x W. 18 inches (48.3 x 45.7 cm). Date: ca. 1714-27.This richly decorated burse was made to contain the king's Great Seal. It was part of the insignia of office of its custodian, the Keeper of the Great Seal (a post often contained within that of the Lord High Chancellor) and one of the most elaborate symbols associated with that high office. The king's Great Seal was attached to all writs, letters patent, charters, and royal proclamations and was the ultimate symbol of royal authority. Something of the aura that attached to the physical object may be seen in the sense of responsibility its keepers felt in its safekeeping. When a Thomas Sadler broke into the house of the chancellor, Lord Finch, and stole the mace and burse on February 7, 1677, he failed to take the Great Seal itself, as Lord Finch kept it under his pillow.The present example dates from the reign of the first Hanoverian king, George I, and although the coat of arms would be particular to each monarch, the general form and decoration had been established earlier. A portrait of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, dated 1579 and housed in a private collection, shows him with an embroidered burse heavy with metal thread on a red velvet ground, with the monarch's coat of arms and initials, foliate borders, and applied tassels, which is the same in essence as the Hanoverian example. The burse of Elizabeth I's last Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, Sir Thomas Egerton (appointed 1596-1603), which is today in the British Museum, is also centered by the queen's coat of arms flanked by a lion and a Welsh dragon rampant, surmounted by the letters E.R. and bordered by scrolling foliage. This pattern was followed in succeeding examples, evident in the burse held by Sir Orlandus Bridgeman, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal between 1667 and 1672, in the engraving by William Faithorne. One of the ceremonial uses of the burse was to be carried in procession at shoulder height by the Lord High Chancellor preceding the monarch. The burse of Francis North, Baron Guildford (1637-1685), appointed Lord Chancellor and Keeper of the Great Seal in 1682, survives today in the Burrell Collection.Given its symbolic purpose, the burse was made from the finest and most precious of materials by royal embroiderers and therefore represents the pinnacle of professional embroidery of the period. As such, it displays a veritable catalogue of different uses of metal thread, couching techniques, and appliqué. These techniques are also to be found on heralds' tabards, robes of state, and other greater and lesser articles of ceremony, and were used in varying levels of detail, relief, and material according to a judicious hierarchy of workmanship that was attached to works made for court ceremonial. The embroidery is almost sculptural in character. The applied raised work in high relief is well dispersed throughout the composition of the square bag, comprising the main decorative elements: the Royal Hanoverian coat of arms at the center, the lion and unicorn rampant on plinths, an orb at the bottom center, and winged putti's heads punctuating the corners and middle of the sides of the border. All of these elements are composed of couched metal threads of varying width, tone, and form to create a variety of contrasting textures. The colors are concentrated around a palette of gold, silver, and crimson, traditionally associated with English royalty since the time of William the Conqueror (whose arms are included on the first half of the upper left quartering of the coat of arms on the burse, the "three lions passant gardant or"). The texture achieved by virtue of tightly coiled silver purl in the unicorn's muzzle or the sinuous undulating ribcage of the lion's chest demonstrates the skill in manipulating metal threads to give the impression of the natural fall of groomed fur.The arms themselves are those of King George I. To the existing royal arms of the quartered fleurs-de-lis of France, rampant red lion of Scotland, lions passant of England, and harp of Ireland, the Hanoverian arms have been included in the lower left quadrant: two lions passant for Brunswick, harts and a blue lion rampant for Lüneburg, and a white or silver horse for Westphalia. Over this is a diminutive escutcheon with the crown of Charlemagne, an emblem associated with George I's title as Arch-Treasurer of the Holy Roman Empire. In the course of his reign, George I appointed three Lord High Chancellors, and so there are three possible possessors of this burse: William Cowper, 1st Baron Talbot of Hensol (1714-18), Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke (1718-25), and Peter King, 1st Baron King (1725-33). The extravagant three-dimensionality of the burse shows the continued flourishing of professional embroidery at court into the eighteenth century.[Jonathan Tavares, adapted from English Embroidery from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1580-1700: 'Twixt Art and Nature / Andrew Morrall and Melinda Watt ; New Haven ; London : Published for The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York [by] Yale University Press, 2008.]. Museum: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.
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