cowslips, crowns and coronets

The Coronation Invitation

I was elected a Brother of the Artworkers Guild in 2002. Little did I know then what part membership of that wonderful institution would play in my future.

Fast forward. The year is 2023, Crail, Scotland a lovely, sleepy fishing village of the east coast of the Kingdom of Fife in Scotland and just a few miles south of St. Andrews. At that time my wife and I were busily going about our daily routines when one day the telephone rang.  I thought it strange because in the age of emails and instant messaging our telephone hardly ever rang. Overcoming my surprise I lifted the receiver. It was the secretary of the Artworkers Guild. She told me that His Majesty the King, who is an Honorary Brother of the Guild, wanted a Brother to design his Coronation invitation. The secretary asked If I would be happy for her to put my name forward. There were eight members of the Guild who would submit designs. Of course, my answer was yes!

I was honoured to be asked to submit a design but really didn’t give it too much consideration as I didn’t think I would stand a chance as the Artworkers Guild is full of extremely talented artists and craftsmen. However, I duly scribbled a design in black ink and photographed it and sent it to the Guild Secretary.  Then continued my daily life of painting coats of arms and illuminating manuscript pages.

About two weeks later the telephone rang again and it was the Guild Secretary, and she asked me if I was sitting down. I think I asked if I needed to be and she replied probably, because His Majesty had chosen my design for the invitation and that a team from Buckingham Palace would soon be in touch. My wife came into the room and I said, I need a drink of something!  She asked me if everything was alright and I said, yes, I think so, the King wants me to design his Coronation invitation. As I was saying the words it seemed like there was a disconnect and it wasn’t me saying them. Strange.

The Palace team did get in touch, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how normal they all were. I suppose I was expecting a rather crusty member of the Household, ex Major General type, the type of bloke that relieved Mafekin.  I was wrong. The team were fun, young, dynamic, positive and incredibly good to work with. The first thing I had to do was to guarantee the secrecy of the project. I was not to tell anyone, my wife Elisabeth knew of course but that was it. I didn’t even tell my extended family, even though I wanted to shout it from the roof tops.

The Project.

The design of the invitation in its first form indicated, English wildflowers, butterflies, birds, bees and the royal flowers of England, Scotland and the Shamrock of Ireland, I also included the Daffodil for Wales. Perhaps the most radical decision was my decision to include a depiction of the mythological character, the Green Man. An enigmatic figure found in churches all over the British Isles and whose true meaning is lost in the mists of time. However, I adapted the usual depiction, and I gave him a crown making him in effect a “Green King” a direct reference to the environmental work His Majesty is so well known for and to my mind, the Green Man symbolises renewal and re-birth. I chose the flowers for their symbolism – Rosemary for Remembrance of lost love ones, Lily of the Valley – Love, purity, Happiness, Hawthorne – Hope and love and the month of May, Cornflower – fidelity and love, Wild Strawberries – a royal fruit and symbolic of Righteousness and true love, Dog Roses – love and pleasure, Bluebells - Humility, constancy and good luck, Primroses – Renewal and optimism, Pansies -Free thinking, thoughtfulness and consideration, Forget-me-nots – Chivalry and remembrance. Others because I just like them. The Robin and the Wren are often thought to be a sacred and mystical pairing – the robin representing Summer and the Wren Winter. Bees for industriousness and hard work and Butterflies for re-birth and new beginnings. The style in my mind was to be joyous and a celebration.

The first thing that truly surprised and I have to say delighted me was that the invitation was not going to be monochrome but full colour and so the Palace team asked me for a colour rough, and duly supplied it went to Their Majesty’s for approval. Originally, I had only included the royal coat of arms of the King and so I was asked to amend the design and include the coat of arms of Her Majesty, Queen Camilla. With that new information, I reworked the design and produced a new colour rough. His Majesty made a couple of small suggestions and then it was time to paint the finished article. I also was asked to run the coats of arms past Garter King of Arms at the College of Arms to ensure all the heraldry was as it should be. I remember he congratulated me on the commission and asked if he could see the whole design. I was under strict instructions to show it no one and so I had to decline. Heraldry approved, I was able to begin the final artwork.

The Painting.

I was born in Bermondsey and grew up on a social housing estate between Dagenham and Rainham in Essex. I would go to Saturday Morning Pictures and developed a love of knights in armour when I saw films like El Cid, The Black Shield of Falworth, Ivanhoe and perhaps my favourite, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table starring Robert Taylor. I loved drawing. I drew knights, dragons and shields all the time. When I was fourteen my parents moved to Dorset, my father, had recently qualified as a history teacher and taken a job at a school just over the border in South Somerset. The countryside of Dorset is very beautiful, field after field of wide-open spaces all surrounded by hedgerows and huge Elm trees that gave welcome respite from the hot Summers. Trees that are sadly long gone thanks to the disastrous Dutch Elm disease. Fields that teemed with birds, rabbits, blackberries and crab apples in the Autumn. Bluebell woodlands, wild hedgerow flowers and bees, lots of bees. It was an absolute paradise to me. Somewhere in my mind that beauty I experienced as a young lad seemed to evoke those memories of colourful chivalry and wildflowers which turned into the borders of the invitation. It was a joy to paint and lose myself in the moment. The royal coat of arms steeped in centuries of tradition, with those smiling mischievous leopards of England and the noble unicorn of Scotland, the shield encircled by that most chivalric institution, the Order of the Garter, founded by King Edward III at Windsor in honour of King Arthur and his knights. The deadline was tight, very tight and I painted for 10-14 hours a day for seven days but hardly noticed as I lost myself in those chivalric wildflower meadows. The art was needed by the printers for them to work their magic, and did they, the result was breathtaking! and then of course to the calligraphers to add the two thousand names, hats off to them!

Duly delivered and on time, I am nothing if not punctual.  I think the enormity of the commission finally sunk in. It may sound odd but whilst I was in my chivalric heraldic meadow lost amongst the flowers and the drone of bees and tweeting birds, I hadn’t given too much thought to what this commission actually was. I think on reflection it was a safety mechanism to allow me to work without too much worry. Once finished however, it was a different story. I relaxed and it hit me! I had just been commissioned by the King and Queen of England to paint Their Coronation invitation. It seemed quite surreal. Then the madness started.

Aftermath.

In my naivety I thought I could just paint the art, pop it in the post and get on with life. I was wrong. The day the design was released to the public, my Instagram following grew from 120 people to over 3000 in hours. My telephone did not stop ringing. The media circus had begun. Media from Australia, major news networks from the United States, Japan, Italy, South Korea to name but a few all asking if they could come and film me in my studio. A French News company even wanted me to travel to London on the day of the Coronation to drive around in a London Taxi with a copy of the invitation describing the symbolism. I said NO! I wanted to watch the Coronation on TV. They found some poor guy from the College of Arms in the end who had no idea what he was expected to do. A friend in France took a photo of his TV screen with some poor guy in a taxi in London explaining the invitation. I found it all quite funny. I think they thought I have this grand art studio with a team of people. My studio workspace was in a spare bedroom of our two-bedroom apartment which I shared with my wife who does admin work for me. My actual workspace was about six feet square. I doubt a camera crew would even fit into the space. So, I declined all of them and the kind people from Palace Communications worked on a statement with me which we put out there. People said I was mad, because that kind of publicity is a goldmine, but no, I am not really into that kind of thing. I like peace and quite and besides I needed to work and pay the rent. I also received all kinds of publicity in different less obtrusive ways. My wife and I took a week away after all the craziness to relax in South Wales, no internet, no telephones, just a remote farm near the beautiful medieval chapel of St. Issui and by a Holy Well, near Llanvihangel Crucorney.

I think the highlight for me was to quite unexpectedly receive two handwritten notes of thanks from The King and Queen and a small token of Their appreciation. My wife and I received an invitation to a Garden Party at Holyrood Palace, a wonderful day, where we got to meet His Majesty and the members of the Royal Company of Archers, the King’s Bodyguard in Scotland were a wonderful group of guys. I was later invited to a reception at Buckingham Palace for all those connected with the Coronation where I met His Majesty and the Princess Royal. I was also awarded the Coronation Medal. The invitation rough and original artwork formed part of the Coronation Exhibition at Buckingham Palace, and I have since met Their Majesties on a few informal occasions and the King always remarks how quickly I work. On reflection I think I produced the monochrome rough, the two separate colour roughs and the finished art in about three weeks. Now writing this, it all seems a lifetime away. People now refer to me as “The King’s heraldic artist”, “Illuminator Royal” and “Royal illustrator” very flattering, but I must remind them that sadly it is not the case.  I sometimes look at a copy of the invitation from time to time just to remind myself that yes, Andy “Jamie” Jamieson, the kid from the council estate was asked by the King of England to design his Coronation invitation and all those things did happen. The stuff of Hollywood feel-good films, for sure. I am now very fortunate to live in North Cornwall near Tintagel in the lands of King Arthur and have a proper studio space for the first time in my life. Even now as I write this looking out over the ancient landscape, I get goosebumps thinking about that time and I think I am allowed a little indulgence to say, I feel so very proud for playing a small if not decorative part in the great history of this island nation, we call home.

Andrew Jamieson

North Cornwall 2026