Search Results for: tress

Tress of hair

Looped tress of hair (Period)

Looped tress of hair (Period)

A tress of hair is a plaited length of human hair, knotted at the ends. It’s a period charge, found in the canting arms (Italian trecce) of de Trecio, c.1550 [BSB Cod.Icon 270:825], and in the badge of Zouche, c.1520 [Walden 163].  The illustration shows a simple looped tress, as in the badge of Zouche; the arms of de Trecio show the tress with the ends of the loop crossed in base, which fact is blazoned.  See also knot.

Katja the Forthright bears as a badge:  A looped tress of hair Or surmounted by a single-sided comb sable.

Eleanor a la Tresse bears:  Per bend vert and gules, a tress of hair bendwise Or between a cross of Toulouse and an open book argent.

This entry was posted on June 5, 2014, in .

Regional Style Overview, 2014

So a few years back, I taught a class at Collegium Caidis:  a very brief overview of the differences between the heraldic style of, say, Germany, with that of Spain… or Poland, or England.  The class was a slide presentation, with many images of armory taken from period sources.  I didn’t have a chance to prepare a class handout.

In November 2014, I was invited to teach at a small Heraldic Collegium in the West Kingdom, and I taught the class again.  This time I had a class handout.  I’ve since included ideas from a similar class taught by Mistress Emma de Fetherstan, but the main outline of the class remains mine.

Sadly, I can’t include the images on this site (since many of them are from copyrighted sources), but I’ve included the handout here for everyone.  If you wish to share this with others, please direct them to this page.

REGIONAL STYLE CLASS

UPDATE:  I went on to teach the class again at the Known World Heraldic & Scribal Symposium, held in Toronto in June 2015, and the class was videotaped.  The quality is not ideal — some of the projected images weren’t captured on the camera, for some reason — but I think it’s decent.  My thanks to the wonderful folks who organized and ran the Symposium!

The video is on YouTube, and the link is here.

This entry was posted on November 28, 2014, in .

Yarn

Clew of yarn (Period)

Clew of yarn (Period)

Hank of yarn (Period)

Hank of yarn (Period)

Yarn is a continuous length of fibers, spun or twisted, and used in the production of textiles.  It’s usually found as an adjunct to a spinner’s or seamstress’s tool:  e.g., a drop-spindle, niddy-noddy, quill of yarn, or shuttle.  However, when collected into a visible mass, yarn can be a charge in its own right.  One form is the simple “ball of yarn”, which Society heralds sometimes call a “clew of yarn” for the sake of a cant; the charge is found in the canting arms (Portuguese novelo) of Navaes or Novais, c.1540 [Nobreza xxviii].  Society practice grants no difference between a ball of yarn and a roundel.

There is also the “hank of yarn (or cotton)”, a skein of yarn wound and bound, as in the canting arms of Cotton, 1335 [DBA2 381; Parker 306].  The hank of yarn is palewise by default.  See also knot.

Elena Carlisle bears:  Per pall inverted Or, azure and argent, two domestic cats sejant guardant respectant counterchanged sable and argent and a ball of yarn azure.

Effie Scarlet bears:  Gules, three clews of yarn each transfixed by two double-pointed knitting needles in saltire argent.

Isabel Moundoghter bears as a badge:  A clew of yarn pendant from a hank of cotton fesswise argent.

This entry was posted on June 8, 2014, in .

Shears; Scissors

Pair of shears (Period)

Pair of shears (Period)

Pair of scissors (Period)

Pair of scissors (Period)

Shears (more fully a “pair of shears”) is a cutting instrument with a pair of opposing blades joined by a spring.  Medievally, they came in several sizes, from large shears the height of a man (used to shear the wool from sheepskin) to small hand-held shears used by seamstresses in sewing; the latter are also called “snips”.  The blades might have either pointed or rectangular ends; rectangular ends are perhaps more common in mundane heraldry (as in the arms of Gennip or Gennep, c.1370, [Gelre 88v]), but the triangular blades are also found (Langen, 1605 [Siebmacher 181]).  The latter are more popular in the Society.

Shears have their blades to base, slightly open, by Society default.

Related to shears is the “scissors” or “pair of scissors”:  the opposing blades pivot on a bolt, and have handles on the other end to open and close them.  Scissors are likewise a period charge, found in the arms of Jungingen, c.1340 [Zurich 196], and the Guild of Tailors of Basel, 1415 [Volborth 184]; the handles should not be drawn in the modern ergonomic design.  Society heraldry distinguishes between the shears and the scissors, though little heraldic difference is granted.  The scissors’ default orientation is with points opened to chief, but that fact is frequently blazoned explicitly.

Blanking shears (Accepted)

Blanking shears (Accepted)

In Society armory, we find “blanking shears”, which despite the name, are actually like scissors in design:  they’re made for cutting metal blanks, as for coins.  As with scissors, their default orientation is with the blades to chief; the illustration is taken from a woodcut by Hans Burgkmair the Elder, c.1500.

Agnes Cresewyke bears:  Gules, three pairs of shears Or.

Carlos Blanco el Barbero bears:  Per chevron azure and gules, a pair of scissors argent.

Ian Cnulle bears as a badge:  Argent, a pair of open blanking shears, handles interlaced with a hammer fesswise reversed, all between three roundels sable.

This entry was posted on June 3, 2014, in .

Sea-lion

Sea-lion (Period)

Sea-lion (Period)

Natural sea-lion (seal) sejant (Accepted)

Natural sea-lion (seal) sejant (Accepted)

The sea-lion is an heraldic sea-monster, with the foreparts of a lion and the tail of a fish; it is also sometimes blazoned a “morse”, especially for canting purposes.  It’s found in the attributed arms of “King Palaeologus”, c.1282 [ANA2 493]; in true heraldry, in the arms of Imhof, 1605 [Siebmacher 206].

Period depictions may show the sea-lion with a lion’s clawed forepaws, or with webs between the toes; either form is correct.  (The latter is more often found in English emblazons.)  There may also be a webbed dorsal fin; this too is artistic license.  The sea-lion is erect (rampant) by default, as in the illustration; it may also be found with its tail reflexed over its head, particularly in German armory.  The sea-lion’s “proper” tincture is with the leonine portion tawny brown and the piscine portion green.

The modified term “natural sea-lion” refers to the pinniped beast, more often termed a “seal”; the two beasts are heraldically indistinguishable, so the latter term is preferred in blazon.  No period heraldic examples of pinnipeds (e.g., seals, walruses, &c) have been cited from period armory, but they are acceptable for Society use.  The seal doesn’t seem to have a default posture; the illustration shows a seal sejant.

The Baron of Lyondemere bears:  Argent, a sea-lion proper grasping a laurel wreath vert, a base engrailed azure.

Ealasaid Nic Shuibhne bears:  Quarterly gules and sable, a sea-lion Or tailed argent.

Anne of Ockham bears:  Azure, a sea lion passant, its tail reflexed over its head, within a tressure argent.

Roane Fairegae of Lochlann bears:  Argent, on a pile throughout azure a seal haurient argent.

This entry was posted on June 3, 2014, in .

Perruque

Perruque (Period)

A perruque, or peruke, is a wig of hair to cover the head. The form found in period armory is intended to resemble a natural head of hair; the elaborate and powdered perukes of the late-17th and 18th Centuries are not used. The perruque is a period charge, found in the canting arms (“hair man”) of Herman or Harmonde, c.1520 [DBA2 354; cf. also Guillim1 174 and Gwynn-Jones 103]. See also beard, tress of hair.

Carlos Blanco el Barbero bears as a badge: Or, in pale a perruque gules and a sinister hand azure.

Moyai-Nidun bears as a badge: Gules, a perruque and on a chief argent a grenade sable.

This entry was posted on May 23, 2014, in .

Orle

Orle (Period)

Orle (Period)

The orle is an heraldic ordinary, a band parallel to the edge of the shield; its width is typically one-tenth to one-twelfth that of the shield.  Its original form was as an escutcheon voided, which form dates to c.1255 in the arms of Balliol [ANA2 503]; but unlike an escutcheon voided, which is always escutcheon-shaped, the orle conforms to the shape of the field it charges.  As an ordinary, it is subject to most of the usual treatments.

The diminutive of the orle is the “tressure”; the term is used when there are two or more of the charge.  The number is given as, e.g., a “double tressure” or “triple tressure”.  Double tressures are found as early as 1280, in the arms of the Kings of Scots [ANA2 103].  The tressures used in Scotland’s arms, the “double tressure flory counter-flory”, are granted by the Crown of Scotland as an augmentation, and not permitted in Society heraldry; even charges suggestive of the Scots tressures, such as the orle demi-flory, are disallowed.  (The arms of Scotland at one point used an orle flory counter-flory, c.1244 [Asp2 208], so the prohibition has some historical basis.)  Although in theory a double tressure could be surmounted by charges other than fleurs-de-lys – e.g., a double tressure surmounted by mullets – no period examples have been found, and the practice is considered a step from period practice.

Orle of martlets (Period)

Orle of martlets (Period)

The term “orle” had another usage in medieval blazons, predating its application to the escutcheon voided:  it described an unnumbered group of charges arranged around the edge of the shield, where the edge of a bordure would be.  Thus, in the arms of the Earls of Pembroke, c.1244 [ANA2 210], a group of martlets around the shield’s edge (as shown in the illustration) would be blazoned “an orle of martlets”.  Note that the charges in the orle are all in their default orientation; if the charges are to orient themselves parallel to the edge of the shield, Society blazon would use the term “an orle of [charges] in orle”.

Frithiof Sigvardsson Skägge bears:  Gyronny argent and vert, an orle sable.

Padraig Ó Taidg bears:  Azure, a double tressure argent.

Rowan of Hakesleah bears:  Gules, an orle of escallops Or.

Geoffrey le Bay bears:  Sable, an orle of plates.

This entry was posted on May 23, 2014, in .

Mullet

Mullet (Period)

Mullet (Period)

Spur rowel, or mullet of six points pierced (Period)

Spur rowel, or mullet of six points pierced (Period)

A mullet is a geometric figure, originally meant as the rowel of a spur, but commonly used to represent a star or other heavenly body.  It’s an ancient charge, also called a “molet” in early blazons; it dates from at least 1244, in the arms of de Vere, Earl of Oxford [Asp2 221].  All mullets have a point to chief by default.

The default mullet has five points, as in the illustration.  Mullets of six or eight points were also very common in period; examples with seven or nine points are found.  Indeed, Society heraldry has seen mullets with as few as three and as many as twelve points.  No difference is granted for the number of points.

Note that mullets with unusual numbers of points may be too readily confused with other charges.  For instance, a mullet of three points is indistinguishable from a caltrap, and is only barely recognizable as a mullet; it is no longer permitted in Society armory for that reason.  On the other end of the scale, a mullet of more than eight points is indistinguishable from a sun, and gets no difference from it (indeed, it will frequently be so blazoned).

A mullet may be “pierced”, with a circular hole in its center.  In particular, a mullet of six points pierced (as in the illustration) may also be called a “spur rowel”.

Mullets are found “voided and interlaced” in period, as in the arms of Degelin von Wangen, 1605 [Siebmacher 119].  For many years, Society heraldry did not permit mullets of five points to be voided and interlaced:  the motif was seen as a mystical or Satanic symbol.  Currently, with the wider acceptance of wiccan religion, the motif is acceptable under the same guidelines as other religious symbols.  Mullets with more points may likewise be voided and interlaced:  in the case of six points, the result is the star of David.

Mullet of eight interlocking mascles (SFPP)

Mullet of eight interlocking mascles (SFPP)

Period armory shows us rare examples of a multi-pointed mullet with a single point greatly elongated (usually to base):  cf. the arms of Beneditti, c.1550 [BSB Cod.Icon 275:137].  These are considered to be an artistic variant of the comet, and are treated as such.  A “mullet of four points elongated to base” is acceptable, based on this pattern, but is considered a step from period practice.  At one time, Society practice also allowed mullets to be “elongated palewise”, i.e., with one point elongated to chief and another to base; this is no longer permitted.

Society practice allows other charges to be combined to form a mullet, although the combination’s outline must resemble a mullet to be blazoned as such.  Thus the Society has examples of, e.g., a “mullet of five pheons, hafts conjoined”, or a “mullet of eight interlocking mascles”.  The latter is considered a step from period practice.

 

 

Compass star (SFPP)

Compass star (SFPP)

Rivenstar (Disallowed)

Rivenstar (Disallowed)

There are other variants of the mullet, unique to Society heraldry.  The “compass star” is a mullet of four greater and four lesser points; its use is considered a step from period practice, and not permitted at all when elongated to base.  (Likewise, any mullet of greater and lesser points is deemed a step from period practice: e.g., the “mullet of five greater and five lesser points”.)  The “riven star” is essentially a compass star disjointed per bend sinister; as it has no period exemplars, the riven star is no longer registerable.

Some mullet variants are blazoned as though they were other charges:  A “cross estoile” is a mullet of four points elongated to base; the usage does not appear to be period.  A “sword of Höflichkeit” is an obsolete Society term for a mullet of four points elongated to base, gyronny Or and sable.

In English cadency, the mullet is the brisure of the third son.  For related charges, see compass rose, cross estoile, estoile.  See also sparks.

The King of Ansteorra bears:  Or, a mullet of five greater and five lesser points sable within a laurel wreath vert, in chief a crown of three points, all within a tressure sable, overall issuant from base a demi-sun gules.

The Prince of Vindheim bears:  Quarterly sable and gules, a laurel wreath and in chief three mullets of six points Or.

The Baron of Rivenstar bears:  Azure, a riven star between in bend sinister two laurel wreaths, all argent.

The Baron of Brendoken bears:  Per pale vert and sable, a mullet of eight points within a laurel wreath Or.

Áine ingen Néill mec Lugdech bears:  Gules, three mullets argent.

Selivia de l’Estoile bears:  Gyronny of six purpure and argent, a mullet of six points azure.

Aelfwine Denedom bears:  Quarterly vert and sable, a mullet of four points throughout argent.

Paul of Sunriver bears:  Azure, a compass star Or.

Robert FitzNorman bears:  Azure, a mullet of eight interlocking mascles argent.

Michel le Blanc bears:  Barry sable and argent, a mullet of three points pallwise throughout Or.

Katerine Rowley bears:  Quarterly azure and Or, four spur-rowels counterchanged.

Ailis Linne bears as a badge:  A mullet of five points voided and interlaced within and conjoined to an annulet azure.

This entry was posted on May 22, 2014, in .

Man-tyger

Man-tyger passant guardant (Period)

Man-tyger passant guardant (Period)

The man-tyger is a monster, consisting of a lion with a human head; sometimes the feet have been replaced by human hands.  It’s been suggested [Dennys 116] that the monster is an heraldic representation of the baboon of nature:  the cant with Babyngton, who used the man-tyger as a badge in 1529, supports this theory.  The man-tyger is very similar to the manticore, and may be considered an artistic variant.

The man-tyger doesn’t seem to have a default posture, so this must be explicitly blazoned; the illustration shows a man-tyger passant guardant.  For related charges, see lamia.  See also sphinx.

Godfrey of Inwood bears:  Vert, a bat-winged man-tyger sejant guardant within a bordure argent.

Beathach mu Saoileachedainn bears:  Azure, a winged man-tyger salient guardant within a tressure wreathed Or.

This entry was posted on May 18, 2014, in .

Knot

A knot is a complex interlace, usually of rope or twine; there are a great many varieties.  In period heraldry, knots were normally used as badges, but there are some examples of knots used in coats of arms – e.g., the Bourchier knots in the arms of Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1454-86 [DBA3 430] – and they may be so used in Society heraldry.

Of the knots used in the Society, many are taken from medieval heraldry; some are simple knots, described in the blazon rather than given a special name; some are used mundanely in other occupations, such as surgery; and some knots are Society inventions.  The illustrations show each knot in its default orientation.

The knots taken from medieval heraldry include:

The simple generic knots include:

The knots used in occupations include:

Finally, of the Society inventions:

Knots must maintain their identifiability when used as charges.  In general, this means they may not be conjoined to form a large knotwork pattern, such as found in Celtic illumination.  So long as they can still be identified, simple knots may be conjoined in small numbers:  v. the arms of Zyganer, 1605 [Siebmacher 73], with three knots conjoined in pall inverted.

For related charges, see cross, fret, Norse beasts, pretzel, serpent, star of David, tassel, tress of hair, triquetra, valknut, yarn.

This entry was posted on February 18, 2014, in .