06/2025 Guild’s ceremonial banner

The Banner of the Bakers’ and Gingerbread Makers’ Guild Guilds were medieval and early modern organizations that brought together craftsmen. Their main goals were to protect the interests of their members, regulate production, set standards for product quality, determine prices, and prevent unwanted competition. Guilds expressed their prestige through richly decorated banners, which they carried during various city festivities and parades. Banners from the town of Železný Brod typically featured the guild’s symbols and its patron saint. Most of the preserved banners from Železný Brod date back to the first half of the 19th century and share a similar artistic style.

The base of each banner was cloth, into which a double-sided painted image was sewn. The banner of the united guild of bakers and gingerbread makers is among the more ornate examples. It is made of red cloth, with decorative fringes around the edges. In the center is a double-sided painting: one side depicts St. James the Greater, the other the Last Supper. What makes this banner unusual is that the original painting was later covered on both sides with new canvases featuring the same motifs, but painted by a different artist — František Maischeider, a painter and photographer from Železný Brod, in 1855. It was common practice for a guild to repair or replace damaged parts of a banner once it had worn out, or to commission a new one altogether. In this case, however, the original painting was still in good condition, yet the bakers and gingerbread makers decided to commission new paintings nonetheless.