Sunday, May 9, 2010

Noble Volunteer Company of Vintners

I have been asked to provide a uniform plate of the Noble Volunteer Company of Vintners as introduced in my previous post, and find myself most happy to oblige.  

Fortunately, the standard of the company still exists, having been carefully- and remarkably- well preserved in the vaults of the Cathédrale de Notre Dame de St. Vignobles
 
   (Click on picture to enlarge)

The company was always maintained at a strength of 48 officers and men, all of the nobility, as this was the number of men who sallied out with the 7th Marquis de Sangfroid to save King Louis during the Fronde in 1651.  

A detachment escorted the King whenever he made an official inspection of the vineyards of France, and an officer of the company was always present for the opening of wine casks during festivities at Versailles, tasked with tasting the wine both for quality and for safety.  

While never serving as an actual combat unit, the uniform was worn by all general officers from St. Vignobles, for whom membership in the company was a prerequisite for the rank.

-Plate made possible through some creative digital "legerdemain" and of course by David's wonderful work on his excellent blog,
 "Not by Appointment ".



6 comments:

Capt Bill said...

Very interesting uniform, but a really nice flag...

abdul666 said...

A magnificient uniform and such a fitting standard!
Thanks for posting.

Now, I suppose the Company has a trumpeter... ?

Fitz-Badger said...

Very nice plate! I really like the flag, very fitting.

David Morfitt said...

Good to see one of my favourite plates I did in use - and also an adaptation of one of the flags I posted too. Very attractive! :-)

Cheers,

David
http://nba-sywtemplates.blogspot.com/

Robert said...

Thanks for commenting, David. I owe you a huge debt of gratitude for the hard work you've done on those excellent templates.

If I was to be honest I enjoy working on the templates as much as I do as painting the miniatures!

David Morfitt said...

Thanks, Robert. I'm glad you enjoy using them and do it so well, especially with the colourful adaptations. Without seeing them in use like this my enthusiasm for doing them does tend to wane!

Look forward to seeing more in action on your blog. :-)

Cheers,

David
http://nba-sywtemplates.blogspot.com/