THE GARTER (Continued from page 1) the Garter, London, 1672, Anstis gives, in English as well as the original Latin, the text of the old "Register of the Order of the Garter~ From its Cover in Black Velvet Usually called THE BLACK BOOK". The first volume of Sir Nicholas Nicolas’s History of the Orders of Knighthood of the British Empire, 4 vols. 1842, deals entirely with the Garter. The photos illustrating this article are of the fine hand-coloured plates in the first volume of Nicolas. The drawing of the velvet Garter in its modern form was kindly done by Mr. W. Wareing of Manchester. I will briefly describe the insignia: - PHOTO A shows the Garter itself, 22~ inches long, having the motto "HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE" embroidered in gold thread on the dark blue velvet. The modern example in the drawing has the letters, buckle and tag in gold. The Garter is worn buckled below the left knee when knee-breeches are worn (court dress). Ladies wear it on the arm above the le~t elbow. AMERICAN NUMISMATIC SOCIETY Above the Garter in the same photo is shown the Lesser George on its blue riband. The Lesser George, of gold, was originally worn at the neck from a blue riband or, when the knight was in armour, from a thin neck Chain. Later, for convenience in riding, it was worn hanging under the right arm from the ri- band passing over the left shoulder. Unlike most Orders which are worn from a sash pass- ing over the right shoulder, the Garter sash is worn over the left, which is also the case with the Order of the Thistle. About 1760 the riband was changed from pale blue to a darker true- blue, more appropriate to the Hanoverian dy- nasty than the light blue of the Stuarts. The riband is now light blue again and four inches wide. In old times the co!our of the Mantle varied between blue and purple although the original Institution lays down "rich Celestial Blue". In old portraits and heraldic books the mantles are shown as pale indigo, pale ultramarine,
Transcript
THE GARTER (Continued from page 1)
the Garter, London, 1672, Anstis gives, in English as well as the original Latin, the text of the old "Register of the Order of the Garter~ From its Cover in Black Velvet Usually called
THE BLACK BOOK". The first volume of Sir Nicholas Nicolas’s History of the Orders of Knighthood of the British Empire, 4 vols. 1842, deals entirely with the Garter. The photos illustrating this article are of the fine hand-coloured plates in the first volume of Nicolas. The drawing of the velvet Garter in its modern form was kindly done by Mr. W. Wareing of Manchester.
I will briefly describe the insignia: - PHOTO A shows the Garter itself, 22~ inches long, having the motto "HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE" embroidered in gold thread on the dark blue velvet. The modern example in the drawing has the letters, buckle and tag in gold. The Garter is worn buckled below the left knee when knee-breeches are worn (court dress). Ladies wear it on the arm above the le~t elbow.
AMERICAN NUMISMATIC SOCIETY
Above the Garter in the same photo is shown the Lesser George on its blue riband. The Lesser George, of gold, was originally worn at the neck from a blue riband or, when the knight was in armour, from a thin neck Chain. Later, for convenience in riding, it was
worn hanging under the right arm from the ri- band passing over the left shoulder. Unlike most Orders which are worn from a sash pass- ing over the right shoulder, the Garter sash is worn over the left, which is also the case with the Order of the Thistle. About 1760 the riband was changed from pale blue to a darker true- blue, more appropriate to the Hanoverian dy- nasty than the light blue of the Stuarts. The riband is now light blue again and four inches wide.
In old times the co!our of the Mantle varied between blue and purple although the original Institution lays down "rich Celestial Blue". In old portraits and heraldic books the mantles are shown as pale indigo, pale ultramarine,
pale greenish-blue, and sky-coloured. The present Mantle is of blue velvet lined with white silk, having on the right shoulder a crimson hood of the same material.
PHOTO B shows "The Great George" which is worn suspended from the Collar. It is in gold and coloured enamels. The size worn today is 1¾ inches tall - little more than half the size of the Duke of Marlborough’s old Great George which was afterwards presented to the Duke of Wellington and can be seen in the recently-opened Wellington Museum at Apsley House, Piccadilly, London.
PHOTO C1 shows the Collar with the Great George attached, and the Mantle Badge is shown above. The Collar is formed of 24 en- amelled Tudor roses, each within a buckled garter, linked together with 24 lover’s knots. It will be noticed that the roses in this collar (photo C1) are alternately different. They are, in fact, coloured alternately red within white
and white within red. The White Rose was the Badge of the House of York and the Red Rose that of Lancaster. In the Statutes of Edward VI the rose in the Collar is given as RED, but it seems that Henry VIII, descended from both
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Lancaster and York, had the Collar made with two-colour roses. After his time all-red roses came into use again until Queen Victoria had her Collar again with the rose alternately red within white and white within red. The 1937 edition of Dress & Insignia worn at Court,
Cl
JANUARY, 1955
AMERICAN NUMISMATIC SOCIETY O AMERICAN NUMISMATIC SOCIETY
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issued with the authority of the Lord Chamber- lain, has a coloured plate of the Garter insig- nia; it shows the roses in the Collar as RED. As the old Collars are always re-issued it is
possible that bo~ types are now in iase.
PHOTO C2 shows the type of Collar with all the roses red+ The Star appears above the Collar in this photo.
PHOTO D shows the Star of the Order, silver- rayed with St. George’s Cross in red surrounded by the blue buckled garter. Modern stars are slightly different in that they are elongated
and taller than they are broad. The silver star came into fashion at the end of the 18th century. Before that, stars were embroidered in silver thread.
PHOTO E. This is one of the double-page engravings in Anstis’s book. It shows Henry VIII and his Garter Knights. In addition to the English dukes the procession included James
V of Scotland, Francis I of France, and the Emperor Charles V.
Anstis writes in his Preface:
"The most noble Order of the GARTER hath flourished more than Three hundred
and seventy Years with such distinguished
Glory, that the Princes of CHRISTENDOM,
most celebrated for heroick Atchieve-
merits, have eagerly sollicited an Admit-
tance into this Fraternity, as the great- est Accession of Honour that could happen
to them; and on the Plan and Oeconomy thereof, did erect several military Orders
in their own Territories, which have made like Figures in Comparison with it, as Copies usually bear to their Originals:
Though it is evident these derivative
Orders would have continued to shine with
more Lustre, if the great Masters of them had not suffered a Deviation from the
Precedent of the GARTER, which hath
never permitted any Augmentation to the
number of the Companions designed in
the primary Statutes."
However time brought changes and the Statute of 1768 declared that the sons of the Sovereign should not be included in the statutory 25 Knights. Later, foreign royal personages were made extra members. The Order now consists of the Sovereign and 25 Knights Companions, such lineal descendants of George I as may have been elected, foreign sovereigns and extra Knights admitted by special Statutes. In 1911 the membership was 51 Knights and two Ladies. The foreign monarchs numbered 14, three of them emperors and one an ex, king (Portugal).
There are five officers of the Order: Prel- ate, Chancellor, Registrar, King of Arms, and Usher’ The Prelate has always been the Bish- op of WinChester, His gold badge is circular and has St, George and the dragon surrounded by the Garter and a bishop’s mitre above worn from a three’inch Garter-Blue riband. The Chancellor is the Bishop of Oxford. His badge is a Red Rose with St. George on the reverse, both surrounded by the Garter. The Registrar’s Badge is in the form of an oval garter with crown above, and within the oval a book - the Register of the Order- in crimson enamel, with crossed quill pens in gold superimposed
