Oliver Cromwell funeral escutcheon

A painted and gilded silk 'taffety' escutcheon depicting the Arms of the Commonwealth, with an escutcheon of pretence, the paternal arms of Oliver Cromwell (a lion rampant) impaling those of his wife Elizabeth (née Bourchier) - three leopards passant, or, spotted the first. Over all an Imperial crown, composed of crosses patee, and strawberry leaves, four gold bars meeting arch-wise, over a low red cap. The field, inscribed: ‘Oliver Cromwell’s scutcheon that was taken from his Hearse ye 23rd Nov. 1658.’ The silk was folded into ten small squares and was mounted in a glazed wooden frame.

Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector, died from a malarial infection of the spleen in the Palace of Whitehall on 3 September, 1658. He was 59. His body was embalmed, wrapped in cerecloth and encased in two coffins: the inner of lead and outer of wood. At ten o'clock at night on 26 September the corpse was moved to Somerset House. During the ensuing weeks, Somerset House was transformed and four state rooms were prepared for the lying-in-state (18 October - 10 November). The rooms were completely covered in black cloth. The first, contained a cloth and chair of state; and the second and third were similarly furnished. All the rooms were hung with escutcheons (shields or banners with armorial bearings) of the Lord Protector's arms, crowned with an Imperial Crown. The fourth room (illustrated in a contemporary print) was illuminated by white wax tapers, three feet high. The walls and ceiling were hung with black velvet and life-size and life-like effigies of the Protector, lay on a bed of state. The wax faces modelled by the medallist and engraver Thomas Simon. The whole room was adorned with heraldic banners, plaques, rolls, escutcheons and mottos, made from various materials. After a few days the effigies were removed to another room, this time propped up and vested in royal robes and regalia, surrounded by ensigns and standards of honour.

Private burial took place in Henry VII's Chapel, Westminster Abbey and on 23 November the public funeral was held with regal ceremony. A graphic account of the funeral procession is given in a contemporary newspaper: 'From Somerset House to Westminster the streets were railed in and strewed with sand, and all along the Strand on each side of the streets soldiers were placed without the rails...the persons in mourning...were very numerous'. The effigies were placed on a hearse, richly adorned with fifty silk taffity escutcheons and other ornaments.

In all 2961 items of painted and gilded textile were used in the funeral ceremonies. Escuteons forming the largest group, some 2006 in all. These were made from three types of fabric: satin at 15 shillings; taffity at 10 shillings and buckrum at 4 shilings There were 12 satin escutcheons; 530 in taffity and 1464 in buckrum. Six painters were employed and it took three men, ten days to furnish the buildings and hearse. The textile escutcheons cost £601,36s.

This escutcheon is one of four known to have survived, most in private hands and one at Westminster School which was apparently snatched from the hearse by a Westminster school boy, Robert Uvedale (see Verney Memoirs, 1892 and Somerset & Dorset Notes & Queries, March, 1927) Uvedale (1642-1722) went on to become a skilled cultivator of exotic plants and was the owner of one of the first hothouses in England. He was also author of a 14-volume herbarium.