Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1980, Qupperneq 39

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FÁEIN ORD UM FÁLKAMERKI SIGURÐAR GUÐMUNDSSONAR MÁLARA
Museum of Iceland, Inv. No. 6175, as does a privately owned drawing (Figure 1) of the design of
the falcon upon it, a copy of a pattern by Sigurður made under his auspices by his pupil
Hólmfríður Björnsdóttir, one of four young women who sewed the above mentioned flag for the
graduates.9 10 14 Two copies of the copy of the pattern are in the National Museum of lceland since
1927, Inv. No. 10124 a,b. Besides, among Sigurður’s drawings kept in the National Museum,
there is a pencil sketch (unregistered) of a flag with the same falcon emblem and a small colored
Danish flag set in the upper corner by the pole; the ground area closest to the Danish flag is
painted blue, no doubt to indicate the main ground color (Figure 2). The llag in the drawing is
edged on three sides with fringe, while the school banner, incorporating no Danish flag image,
has the falcon set in a narrow white frame close to the banner’s edges.
It might be added here that in 1936, upon entering Hinn almenni menntaskóli in Reykjavík as
,,The Learned School” was then named, the present author acquired a school cap as was quite
customary at the time. The cap, now lost, had a crown of grey velveteen15 with a black patent
leather peak, above which was placed an emblem, stiil in existence, a white silver falcon upon a
rosette made from a ribbon in the blue, white and red colors of the lcelandic flag adopted in 1918
(Figure 3). This falcon emblem is very much reminiscent of the banner and flag design by
Sigurður, and basically it may be said to be the same as the cap emblem of the graduates in 1860: a
white silver falcon on a blue ground.
29.11.1979
The above was set on paper about a year ago, but left unpublished at the time. Recently,
however, two additional sources concerning the falcon emblem were pointed out to the author.16
One was a letter dated 5 November 1860 in which Sigurður Guðmundsson related among other
that the graduates of the „Learned School” wanted to wear special graduation caps and that he
hoped soon to have locally made white silver falcons flying on their caps. In the letter he also told
of a man in Reykjavik named Árni, whom he had taught the art of engraving animals and who
was making the falcons.17 The other source is a cap emblem (Figure 4), a white silver falcon on a
ribbon rosette of light blue silk, in the National Museum of Iceland, Inv. No. 6899, the existence
of which was formerly unknown to the author. How this emblem reached the museum is not
known, it being registered there as an emblem likely from a chorus cap from 1870-80, in 1915,
,,some years” after its acquisition.19 The registrar in 1915, who recognized the falcon as being of
Sigurður’s design, was evidently neither aware of the note from 1861 nor the letter from 1860.20 21
Árni, the maker of the falcon emblem mentioned in the letter, is identified as engraver Árni
Gíslason22 (b. 1833, d. 191 1),23 24 and it is believed, through comparing the existing falcon
emblem with known work of his25 that he could well have made it.26 From the available sources it
is therefore not unlikely that the cap emblem No. 6899 was made by Árni from a design by
Sigurður, and is of the kind worn first by eight graduates of ,,The Learned School” on 8
November 1860.
21.11. 1980.