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Description
The figure has dark hair, a pale robe with a red collar, and a shield quartered between a white field with a red cross and a red field with a pale horizontal band and small upright marks.
Heraldry
Blazon: Quarterly: first and fourth Argent, a cross engrailed Gules between four water bougets Sable; second and third Gules billetty Or, a fess Argent.
Plain English: The shield is divided into four quarters. The first and fourth display a red cross with indented or scalloped edges on white, surrounded by four black water bougets—stylised medieval vessels for carrying water. These are the canting arms of the Bourchier family, because “bouget” echoed the pronunciation of Bourchier.
The second and third quarters have a white horizontal band across a red field scattered with small gold rectangles called billets. These are the arms of Louvain, inherited and quartered by the Bourchiers.
The complete arms belong to the Bourchier family and, at the likely date of the ceiling, probably represent Henry Bourchier, 1st Earl of Essex. He lived from about 1405 to 1483 and was a great-grandson of Edward III.
The carving is clearer than it first appears: the black objects are water bougets, not ermine spots, and the pale rectangular charges in the red quarters are the surviving billets. Some of the cross’s engrailed edging has been simplified or lost during repainting.
Identification: RCHME: Bourchier; Buckeridge – Bourchier qrt Lovaine
Tap for more details about the Bourchier family
Condition
The figure and shield remains visible. The main colours survive well. The figure has surface wear on the face, robe and hands, with a dark hole on the side of the torso as viewed. Some small charges on its shield are abraded, limiting their identification.