Dettingen standard (obverse) (cropped)

Obverse of a standard carried at the Battle of Dettingen (27 June 1743 [O.S.: 16 June]) by the 8th Regiment of Horse, the regiment of which Major General John Ligonier (1680–1770) was colonel (later the 7th Dragoon Guards and now part of the Royal Dragoon Guards).
The standard is made from crimson silk damask and its two sides are now mounted separately on boards. Both sides are embroidered with coloured thread and precious metal wire and decorated with metallic lace. Both sides of the standard have a Union Flag at the canton. The obverse shows the now-faded heraldic crest (issuant from the coronet of a marquess, a demi-lion rampant or) and motto (Quo Fata Vocant) of John Ligonier surrounded by foliage. Fragments of the gold-wire fringe remain at the upper fly corner of the obverse. The reverse shows Ligonier's whole armorial achievement: the crest and motto around a shield of his arms: gules, a lion rampant or, on a chief argent, a crescent between two mullets, all superimposed on a trophy of weapons, musical instruments, and regimental standards.
The standard is 56 cm (22) high; 53.3 cm (21) wide (excluding the fringe). According to the auctioneers, "This is the earliest standard known to exist of a regiment of cavalry of the line in the British regular army: it is thus of the very highest importance and significance in British military vexillology". Similarly, this is the only British cavalry standard to survive from the period in which a regiment's colonel emblazoned his own arms on the regimental colours; this practice was suppressed from 1743. The Battle of Dettingen, during the War of the Austrian Succession, was the last at which a British monarch (George II) took the field in person. The standard was inherited through the family of the subaltern who carried it on the day of the battle (Cornet Henry Richardson). It was eventually sold in 2012 to the Royal Dragoon Guards Museum, part of the York Army Museum, having been earlier housed at the Royal United Services Institute and at the National Army Museum in London, having been in Ireland before the early 20th century.

See: The York Press, Olympia Auctions, Antiques Trade Gazette.