The Origin of the Ansteorran Rose Cloak
 
 

The Origin of the Ansteorran Rose Cloak

Ladies,


    I just wanted to share with you all a little about the first Rose cloak that Ginevra made. She actually made it for me to wear at the opening ceremony of the Gulf War when I was Queen of Ansteorra. She thought it would look very pretty draped across the back of the horse I was to ride on. We had a discussion about it should be gold roses on a black background as befitting an Ansteorran. We didn't use the Queen's Roses becasue we wanted it to be a personal cloak not part of Regalia, but easily recognized as Ansteorran colors. She and I went through the materials I had on hand at home and I just happened to have yards and yards of a lovely golden buff colored material that was heavy enough to drape really well. She took that for the cloak and some black satin for the background and gold satin for the rose appliques. Her design for the rose border was very uniform from cloak to cloak afterwards, but it wasn't any grand plan in the beginning, just happy circumstance. 

 

She made cloaks for the Roses in the backyard in the beginning. She wanted each of the Roses to have their own cloak, made with the basic colors continued, but each cloak was very individual with the materials used, Each Rose supplied their own materials in the beginning, so naturally there were some variations. She also made the cloaks for the Knights of the Sable Garland to be the "opposite" of the color scheme of the Rose cloaks as they were each sponsored by a Rose, but along the same design as the original Rose cloaks.

 

Before we knew it, other Roses began to ask about her doing a cloak for them and I guess the rest is history. It is really nice that her cloaks became the visible presence of the Roses of  Ansteorra wherever they gathered in a "bouquet" to quote Tessa.  Ginevra really wanted the Roses of Ansteorra to stand out at the Gulf War and elsewhere as a very distinctive and easily identified group. I think she got her wish.

 

Gladwen

If you take a look at the Photo Gallery, you’ll see a picture from Gulf War in 2005 of some of the Roses of the Knowne World.  It’s pretty easy to pick out the Ansteorran Roses, isn’t it?  The distinctive cloaks that we wear make it easy to identify a Rose from Ansteorra.  I’d like to say that this didn’t happen by accident, but that isn’t entirely true.  It is true,  however, that we owe it all to a lovely lady who we sadly lost on March 12, 2007, Mistress Ginevra Rodney.


Below is some correspondence from Countess Gladwen of Aylesford that recounts the story of the origin of the Ansteorran Rose cloak.