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Audley End House

 Audley End House is an early 17th century country house outside Saffron Walden, Essex. It was once a prodigy house, a palace in all but name, and renowned as one of the finest Jacobean houses in England. Audley End is now one-third of its original size, but retains many of its architectural features and varied collections, in the stewardship of English Heritage.

Zardi & Zardi were approached by English Heritage to produce reproduction banners made for the vast Jacobean Great Hall at Audley End House. This marvellous room is where the King would have entertained, with its examples of medieval artistry: panelled walls, a coffered ceiling with raised plaster decoration and floors of marble. Embroidered silk banners hung from brass poles jutting out of the walls, and it was these banners that needed repair. English Heritage wanted to find as close a match as possible for the banners, in both design and colour, so commissioned Zardi & Zardi to produce permanent replacements.

Alongside the banners, Zardi & Zardi produced fabric for curtains, bedding and upholstery. Digital images of an original fabric, which was on a daybed, were taken and used to produce a patterned copy that could be used to create further matching soft furnishings.