The three lions’ share of history
QUESTION What is the connection between the three lions of England and the two lions on the flag of Normandy? How did the extra lion come about? THE first five post-conquest kings of England (William I, William II, Henry I, Stephen and Henry II) coincided with the birth of heraldry in England and appeared to favour a lion as a symbol.
The lion is a popular motif in heraldry, symbolising bravery, valour, strength and royalty, reflecting its status as the king of beasts.
The coat of two gold lions on a crimson field has been the arms of Normandy for around 1,000 years and was the arms of Williams I and II and Henrys I and II.
Stephen’s arms were a gold sagittary (a mythical beast with a lion’s body and the torso of a warrior bearing a bow and arrow). Though related to the House of Normandy, he was a nephew of William I and of the House of Blois.
In May 1152, Henry II married Eleanor of Aquitaine, the greatest heiress in Western Europe, eight weeks after her marriage to Louis VII of France was annulled on grounds of consanguinity.
Eleanor had succeeded her father, William X, Duke of Aquitaine and Earl of Poitiers, at the age of 15. At the time of her marriage to Henry II, she was Duchess of Aquitaine and Countess of Poitiers in her own right. The arms of Aquitaine was (and still is) a single gold lion on a crimson field.
After Henry II’S death in 1189, the coat of arms bearing three lions appeared on the reverse of Eleanor’s seal.
The coat later appeared on the second Great Seal of Richard I and was thereafter recognised and used by succeeding monarchs until around 1340, when Edward III styled himself King of France and assumed the royal arms of France (gold fleur de lys on a royal blue field) and quartered them with the three lions of England.
The fleur de lys appeared on the English and British coat of arms until 1801, when it was altered to reflect the Union with Ireland.
The beasts in the arms of England are often referred to as leopards — not because they were ever shown as or regarded as leopards, but because early heralds described a lion ‘rampant’ (rearing up aggressively, as in the royal arms of Scotland) as a ‘lion’, but when walking along, looking to the front or outwards, as a ‘leopard’.
This was later altered to ‘passant’ to avoid confusion. Later still this became the term for a lion looking forward. The lions in the arms of England became known as lion ‘passant guardant’ because they look out of the coat of arms.
John D. Burton, Motherwell, Lanarkshire.
QUESTION An expert on The Antiques Roadshow valued a paperweight at £22,000. What is the most valuable paperweight of all time? THERE are three great names in paperweight manufacture, all French, from the mid-19th century — Baccarat, St Louis and Clichy.
These exquisite objects are highly collectible and always fetch impressive prices at auction.
The one featured on Antiques Roadshow (pictured) caught the eye of expert Fergus Gambon (son of actor Michael) because it featured a bouquet of flowers containing a distinctive pink rose, a popular feature of Clichy’s designs.
The weight also featured a thistle and pansy, suggesting a reference to the Crimean War (1853-56), with the symbols of England (rose), Scotland ( thistle) and France (pansy) entwined in the bouquet. He valued the item at £22,000, having sold a similar object at Sotheby’s the week before.
However, the most expensive paperweight of all was sold at Sotheby’s (New York) in 1990 for $258,000 (about £157,000) to Alexander Acevedo, of the Alexander Gallery in Manhattan. This was a stunning millefiori glass paperweight, also produced in the mid-19th century by Clichy.
Millefiori is Italian for 1,000 flowers. It involves two glass-making techniques and is labour intensive. Canes or rods of glass known as ‘murrine’ are created by the layering of different coloured glass in a mould and then pulling the soft glass from both ends until the cane has reached the desired thickness.
The cane is then cut into short Intriguing: A British entrant in a Venetian rally, the whaler Molly from Henley, puzzles onlookers with her historic flag on the gaff (inset) beads for further processing. Each bead has multi-coloured patterns that look like little flowers, which are viewable only from the cut ends of the cane, like a stick of rock.
Various multi-coloured beads are then arranged in the desired pattern in a mould. The mould is then filled with glass powder and the design heated at high temperature in the furnace until the content of the mould fuses into a single piece.
The Clichy paperweight is a spectacular example of this art.
Edward Lowe, London SE12.
QUESTION What is the story of the Komet, the German rocket fighter that achieved speeds of almost 600mph in 1944? FURTHER to the previous answer, Oberst Johannes ‘Macki’ Steinhoff did receive horrific burns when attempting to take off on April 18, 1945, from an airfield at Munich Riem, but he was at the controls of a Messerschmidt ME 262 twinengined jet fighter, not the Komet.
His heavily armed ME 262 had reached a speed of 125mph when his left undercarriage struck a hastily filled-in bomb crater, causing it to collapse and resulting in a firestorm.
Steinhoff spent two years in hospital following the crash. He returned to the Bundesluftwaffe in 1952, rising to the rank of Generalmajor in 1962. He retired in 1972 to his home in Bonn and died in 1994.
At the time of the crash, Steinhoff was flying with the JV44 ‘Galland’ wing, the ‘Squadron of Aces’ led by general Adolf Galland.
R. A. Ward, Whitby, N. Yorks. JOHANNES STEINHOFF’S eyelids were rebuilt by British surgeon, Air Vice-marshall George Morley, at the RAF burns and plastic centre at the RAF Hospital after the war. I think this was in 1967-68. AVM Morley was an eminent surgeon who worked with pioneering surgeon Sir Archibald Mcindoe during World War II and set up the RAF burns and plastics units throughout Britain.
I was privileged to work with him during the operation on Gen Steinhoff whom, when I met him post-op, I found to be a charming man.
AVM Morley was never fully recognised for his dedication and work. He was a CBE, unlike some ‘pop’ stars who are knighted.
He was always first to work and last to leave, spending much of his time hand-writing letters to the next of kin of injured patients. He was certainly a role model for me.
Paul Smooker, warrant officer RAF operating theatre technician 1965-1996, RAF Hospital
Halton 1965-68, Gloucester.