Wheat Ear Brooch

This attractive brooch is linked to the dukes of Exeter, and the original was probably a livery badge of either John Holland (died 1447) or his son Henry Holland. Henry was a commander in the Lancastrian army defeated at Barnet in 1471; he died in 1474, having spent the intervening time imprisoned in the Tower of London. That’s actually sort of depressing – we will not tell anyone if you prefer to wear this as a sign that you are excited about making bread, for example. Or that you raise heirloom grain.

There are two closely related examples of this badge, one found in Salisbury and the other in London. Because it is impossible to know which of the dukes distributed it, we can only date it to the middle third of the fifteenth century.