Ribbon badge, London, 1908
Record status
Individual type · partial
Period
1908
Ribbon badge in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (museum number T.82-2023), made in London, dated 1908. The museum's brief description reads: National Women's Social and Political Union (NWSPU) 'Speaker' ribbon badge, white moiré grosgrain silk ground with machine-embroidered green and purple details, purple and green bow, gilt metal laurel wreath, Toye & Co.; London, England, 1908..
Museum description: White moiré grosgrain silk ground. Purple and green bow attached at the top. Below this, there are machine-embroidered green and purple details. The word 'SPEAKER' is embroidered in green, within purple lines. The letters 'NW / S / PU' are embroidered in purple, and are encircled by a gilt metal laurel wreath. Frayed bottom edge of the ribbon. On the back, there is a silver colour pin behind the bow.
The pin is stamped with an indistinct maker's mark. It is attached with thread. There is also textile backing behind the 'SPEAKER' embroidery and a piece of cream cardboard supporting a fitting for the wreath. The fitting is gold colour and includes string. The cardboard, which is damaged in places, also features a red oval manufacturer's sticker with black text and handwriting in black ink. The museum records it as Moiré grosgrain silk ribbon, bow, machine-embroidered details, gilt metal laurel wreath, cardboard, metal fixings with thread and string, sticker and ink, measuring Width 6 cm; Length 24 cm.
These details come from the museum's own record; how far this object represents a wider collectible type has not yet been independently verified.
Evidence at a glance
- Linked sources
- 1
- Photograph views
- 1
- Catalogue references
- 0
Counts describe this entry’s documentation, not authenticity, rarity or completeness. Photographs may show one specimen; check each caption and licence.
Historical context
This ribbon badge is connected to the Women’s Sunday votes for women rally which took place on 21 June 1908. It was organised by the women-only militant Women’s Social and Political Union or WSPU, which was active from 1903 and went on to embrace the term 'suffragette'. This event is thought to have been the largest demonstration that had taken place in Britain up to this point. Tens of thousands of women marched to Hyde Park, London, England watched by hundreds of thousands of spectators. The ribbon badge features the word ‘SPEAKER’ and would have been worn by one of the eighty speakers on the day, who addressed the crowd from twenty temporary platforms. It also features the letters ‘NWSPU’, a variant on the better-known name WSPU, the ‘N’ standing for ‘National’. Women’s Sunday publicly launched the WSPU’s new, and quickly iconic, colour scheme of purple, white and green, chosen by WSPU leader Emmeline Petherick-Lawrence in May 1908. As the suffrage researcher Elizabeth Crawford has explained, before this the WSPU had used red and white flags, ‘although it is unclear whether this was to show solidarity with socialism, with suffrage, or simply because it made a bright banner’. The new colour scheme was intended to promote the organisation and display unity. In ‘The Political Importance of the Colours’ published in Votes for Women on 7 May 1909, Christabel Pankhurst wrote, ‘every member of the Union will become an advertiser for the Exhibition, and will bring […] a dozen or…
Physical characteristics
- Material
- silk (fiber), metal, cardboard, gilt, ink
- Dimensions
- Width 6 cm; Length 24 cm
Technical characteristics
- Technique
- Moiré grosgrain silk ribbon, bow, machine-embroidered details, gilt metal laurel wreath, cardboard, metal fixings with thread and string, sticker and ink
- Place recorded
- London
Design
- Inscriptions recorded
- 'SPEAKER' and 'NW / S / PU'; 'TOYE & CO. / 57, THEOBALDS RD, LONDON, W [sticker torn] / MANUFACTURERS'; 'Willesden'?
Identification
- Museum object name
- Ribbon badge
- Museum object number
- T.82-2023
- Museum system number
- O1766698
Catalogue references
No catalogue numbers recorded. Numbers are only published once transcribed from a verified edition of a standard catalogue — they are never inferred.
Research required
- Research required: confirm the wider type, maker and catalogue references against a specialist reference.