Annunciation badge from Walsingham; Our Lady of Walsingham?

Lozenge-shaped pilgrim badge from the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham at Walsingham Priory. This thin badge is stamped with a scene depicting the Annunciation (the moment when the Angel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that she was to give birth to Christ). Mary sits on the left-hand side of the scene with a book open in front of her. This is a reference to the belief that Gabriel’s arrival interrupted Mary reading Isaiah 7:14, a verse in the Hebrew Bible, which was thought to foretell her virgin conception. The Angel Gabriel descends from Heaven on the right-hand side. In between the figures is a lily growing out of a pot, which symbolises Mary’s purity, innocence and the immaculate conception of Christ. Also in the centre is a stylised scroll which represents the words of greeting that Gabriel spoke to Mary. The top right-hand side of the badge, including Gabriel’s head, is missing. This flat badge would have been sown onto a pilgrim’s clothes or hat, or stitched onto the pages of a prayer book.

The shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk was a popular pilgrimage destination in the medieval period, especially after Henry III made a series of pilgrimages there in the 13th century.