The 200-year-old satin silk tabard with George IV coronation link that reflects 'a changing Scotland'

In every stitch and inch of the cloth, a story of a changing Scotland can be found.

Now, the satin silk and cloth of gold tabard made for a high representative of Scotland for the coronation of George IV in 1821 has been purchased for the national collection for £48,000.

Senior Curator Dr Calum Robertson and the tabard, which has been purchased for the national collection. | Photo (c) Duncan McGlynn (1)

The tabard carries two panels dominated by Lion Rampant - the Scottish Royal Banner - and comes accompanied with a gold badge featuring the St Andrew’s Cross, a ceremonial Chain of Esses and a baton stamped with a thistle.

The “totally unique” collection was worn at Westminster Abbey by an Officer of Arms of the Court of the Lord Lyon, who served as important diplomatic figures, masters of state ceremony and members of the Royal Household in Scotland.

Dr Calum Robertson, senior curator at National Museums Scotland (NMS), said the tabard and regalia reflected a period when Scotland was being “brought back into the fold” of the British monarchs after a long, fractious period punctuated by the 18th-century Jacobite risings, which aimed to topple the House of Hanover from the throne.

READ MORE: The visit of George IV and a day that ‘changed’ Scotland

Mr Robertson said: “George IV loved ceremony and he wanted his coronation to be a celebration in the truest sense of the word - his view was ‘the more, the merrier’.

“The king arranges this very lavish affair and he wants both the English heralds and the Scottish heralds to be there. So they are all invited and they are all provided with new tabards and insignia, and this is what we have got here.

“The tabard also gets to the heart of the change in Scotland. From the end of the 17th century to the early 19th century, Scotland had had a difficult relationship with the monarchy.

“There had been successive attempts to overthrow the monarchy, but society was changing. Scotland had changed.”

The year after the Coronation, George IV visited Scotland - the first reigning monarch to do so in almost 200 years - with the trip following Charles II’s arrival in Moray in 1650.

Dr Robertson said: “George IV’s invitation to the whole of the Court of the Lord Lyon to his coronation in London and his coming up to Edinburgh in 1822 signalled this change - that the monarchy was embracing Scotland again.”

The tabard and insignia were purchased by NMS after being approached by a fine art dealer who discovered the pieces. Half the money came from the National Museums Scotland Charitable Trust.

The collection is considered particularly rare given the items have remained together.

Dr Robertson said: “It is totally unique to have those objects survive together because often heralds would pass on their tabards and the insignia to the person that took their office. They would often sell them on and bits get disarticulated.

“These are objects that were created at the same time, for the same purpose and survive together, which is totally unique and so important for that sense of turning point around the coronation of George IV.

“My theory is that the events of 1821 and 1822 were so significant of Scotland coming back into the fold , in a sense, that somebody has kept these because of that association.”