How The New Badges Were Made

The commission from the Lord Lyon was for four badges, and so a master of each part of the badge was prepared from which a mould would be taken and castings prepared.   These were made, in silver, as we describe below.

• The Scottish Crown:
  Strictly, this is not the Scottish crown whose shape does not lend itself to the oval of the badge, so Ian has kept features of the Scottish crown but the outline shape more closely matches the imperial crown on the 1821 badge.
• The crown was outlined in silver and the background engraved.
• Each of the three parts of the crown which appears in cameo (in relief) was engraved separately and pierced out.
• Each of these parts was then soldered in position on the outlined crown.
• The crown itself was then pierced out and hammered from the rear to give it shape.
• This process was repeated for the rear of the crown and both halves then joined.
• The orb and cross were each made separately, joined and affixed to the crown
• The St Andrew figure:
• St Andrew, the outline of the cross, the outline of the thistle and the leaves were engraved on a silver backplate
• His face was engraved and pierced out.
• His hands, elbows and cross were engraved and pierced out.
• The thistle itself (not the leaves) were engraved and pierced out.
• These parts were then affixed to the engraved backplate, which itself was then pierced out and shaped from the rear to fit the dome.
• The Shield of The Royal Arms of Scotland:
• The background of the shield (the Petra Sancta representation of colour) was engraved on a silver backplate.
• Each of the quarters was engraved and pierced out.
• The quarters were affixed to the backplate which was then pierced out and shaped to fit the dome.
• The rim on which the domes are secured:
• A flat oval shaped plate, about an eighth of an inch wide and with a breadth of 1.4", was cut out. It is this plate to which the two silver domes are fixed.
• Two narrower ovals were cut out and soldered to the outer edge of each side of the plate
• These narrower ovals were then shaped so that they have a half-round profile.

From each of these masters a mould was made, silver castings taken, finished, polished and gold plated.

Finally the domes were made. These were not cast because the porous nature of cast metal and the impurities present mean that a casting with a large clear surface area can never have the fine polished finish of sheet silver, nor the colour.   So, for each badge two domes were beaten and fixed to the cast oval rim. The crown was then fixed to the top of the rim and the figure and arms were fixed to the domes.

This was not the task of one, but three, highly skilled men: the design and engraving by Ian, the piercing and soldering up by his son Fraser, the finishing and polishing and making the domes by Alan.   Between them they have created another historical piece.