As the time for my bannerole post being done for my Armet approaches, Wolfe Argent looks to making it's first pennon(cel). You know, the stupid little "shoot me first Mr Swiss crossbowman" flag telling all and sundry to which company/squadron/chambre you belong stuck on the helmet of the chef de chambre. Perhaps it existed for exasperated NCO's to be able to keep easy tabs on idiotic junior officers since they are traditionaly their minders - "oh, the fool is over there"

Since I want it to be an accurate representation, I don't want to make it out of rayon marked with craft paint - how do I go about it? I only know of one existing one of the Ordinance companies - it is fragmentary, and I believe the material is silk.

I'm pretty sure it was a simple triangle of silk with the numbers and saint in either gold leaf or paint.

Any insight anybody could give on this project would be appreciated.

I can't speak for the flags on the Burgundian helmets but the pennon was a farily widely used flag throughout Europe, typically associated with units of roughly 20 men and carried as per a standard etc.

As for construction ... From most of the references to both European and English pennons they are around the 1 to 2 ells (for Flemish approx 21"-42") which would actually bring several of the 'standards' listed by Deuchler in Die Burgunderbutte into this category (although he didn't list them as such)

Looking at Richard III's Coronation accounts there is sufficient cloth to make 470 (from memory) pennons ... these are almost all Linen and would probably (based on the guestimated cloth surface area and a 3:1 proportion) be about 18" long.

However the material could be silk ... or even worsted (at least one English Standard was!)

They are seriously cheap and nasty items and almost certainly painted. Cennini gives instructions on how to do this, and varnish it. However when completed are very effective (I think the White Company web pages still have pics of the two we made (personally I'd make them slightly smaller now but the proportions are within period bounds)).

As to the construction it should be a right angled triangle. This would fit with the 'Standard of Ghent' which is a painted 'Standard' of the city of Ghent made in the 1470's and still surviving. This is Linen (If I recall correctly) with a silk fringe (I don't suggest a silk fringe on a pennon ... indeed any edging at all). It is made from two widths of linen with the join running down the length of the Standard. From memory it has a lion, the Maid of Ghent and the letter G painted on it.

I'll see if I can dig out the article (well actually an open letter)I wrote which was in he White Company Newsletter a year or so ago as that may help.

Many thanks for the information. I look forward to any further light you can shed, especially in regargs to the method used in painting and the paint itself.

At some point, a larger project of ours will probably be #188 out of Die Burgunderbeute, as not being too large or elaborate a flag for a chambre to be carrying, but having some of the nicer features of the larger ones, such as the fringe.

I would give much to be able to pin down specific flags to specific companies, but I think this is impossible except for very few cases. One of the identifiable ones is for the English archers of Charles TB's bodyguard - what an expensuive impression that would be!

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Bob R.

Glad you're here.

Hope it wasn't the pattern per se ... give me a shout if you want to give me details