The Clarendon
Heavenly Bodies

The Moon

Our badge and logo are two special artefacts found at the palace.

The crescent (turned on its side to make a C for Clarendon) was found during the clearance of the site in the 1990s near the Antioch Chamber, in the King’s Apartments. This find increased the national collection to a total of three, all from Clarendon, two recovered in the 1930s.

The lead crescent, diameter c 650mm maybe the moon.

The Star

The other artefact maybe the sun, the largest of the five recovered being some 600 x 600mm.

These too came from the royal apartments, including the Antioch Chamber.

They date from c 1250 when they are recorded for the Antioch Chamber as ‘scintillis’, literally sparks, but distinct from ‘stella’ a star, and not ‘sol’, sun.

Scientific analysis shows they were sized and gilded.

Interpretations

They have been much debated and are mysterious and exciting objects. Interpretations range from:

Being the Sun (Richard the Lionheart) and the Moon (Saladin) with whose combat Henry III wanted his Antioch chamber decorated.

Representing the night sky, crescent moon and the scintillis, being the pricks of starlight: at Winchester Cathedral gold stars are set against a dark blue background, at Clarendon this background is composed of crushed lapis lazuli from Afghanistan.