The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Fundraising drive to help save ancient Dunfermline banner.
CULTURE: Fundraiser launched to save Ancient Society of Gardeners artefact
A fundraising drive has been launched in Fife to save an ancient banner.
The artefact marks the establishment the Ancient Society of Gardeners in Dunfermline in 1716.
Little is known about the rare and gilded piece – which would have been carried on wooden poles in parades and processions – as it is so fragile it has not been unrolled in a decade.
All will be revealed on August 18 when the banner goes briefly on display at Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries.
Fife Cultural Trust interpretation team leader Lesley Botten, who has never even seen the banner, said there had been a desire to include the treasure in the Blooming Marvellous exhibition.
“But centuries of wear and tear have left the banner in too delicate a condition to include in this exhibition,” she said.
The double-sided silk gilded banner, with a hand-painted image of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, was handed into the collection in 1969.
It needs an estimated 250 hours of expert conservation work to stabilise and clean it.
A £10,000 appeal has been launched with a target to raise at least £3,000 from the public.
“We know it is a lot of money, but it is specialist work, it is incredibly painstaking,” Ms Botten said.
To help raise awareness, weaver and textile conservator Fiona Watt will talk about the work needed at two sessions on August 18.