Breadloaf

Breadloaf (Period)

A breadloaf is a long, oblong roll of bread; it is the normal depiction of bread in Society heraldry. This form is also found in period armory, in the canting arms (Italian pane) of Colpan, mid-15^th C. [Triv 120]; but in medieval armory, bread is more usually depicted as simple manchets or roundels, sometimes alone on the field, often on a baker’s peel or in a basket.

When “proper”, breadloaves are tinctured brown in Society armory. For related charges, see pretzel.

Anna de Normandie bears: Gules, in pale two loaves of bread Or.

Magdalene Katherine MacDonald bears: Argent, a breadloaf and on a chief sable three ladles palewise argent.

Leonce the Lombard bears: Gules, on a pall between three breadloaves Or, a cross formy gules.

Brazier

Brazier (Accepted)

A brazier is a container for burning coals or charcoal; it’s used as a heat source for cooking, metalwork, or warming a room. In modern heraldry, it’s also called a “fire-chest”, and is shown as an iron box containing flames [Franklyn 50; Parker 257]; but no heraldic examples of this charge have been yet cited from period armory. As an artifact, the brazier was commonly depicted as a bowl filled with flames; and this is how the brazier is drawn in Society heraldry. (It’s often blazoned “flammant” or “enflamed”, even though it wouldn’t be a brazier without the flames.) The illustration is taken from Jost Amman’s Book of Trades, 1568 [31]. For related charges, see lamp, torch (cresset). See also beacon.

Ari ben Eleazer bears: Tierced per pall argent, purpure and Or, on an open parchment scroll fesswise proper a brazier sable enflamed proper, in chief two swords in saltire sable.

Seamus Gillemore bears: Sable, a brazier argent flaming Or.

Máel Brigte ingen Aimirgen bears: Argent, a brazier gules.

Bowl

Bowl (Period)

A bowl is a rounded container or dish, shown in side-view or three-quarter view. In its simplest form, with a flat bottom (a form which may also be blazoned a “basin” or “bason”), it’s found in the arms of St. Albon, mid-16^th C. [Bedingfeld 58]. The illustration shows a slightly more ornate, footed form, as found in the canting arms (German Schüssel) of Raumschüssl, mid-16^th C. [NW 64].

The “Bowl of Hygeia” is a bowl or cup with a serpent entwined about it, or issuant from it; it is the modern symbol of pharmacists. At one point, it was only permitted to those with the proper medical credentials; but at this writing, its Society use is unrestricted.

A related charge is the “standing dish” or “platter”, found in the canting arms of Standysch, c.1460 [RH; see also Gwynn-Jones 95]. This was depicted essentially as a roundel with internal detailing, and even period heralds did not always distinguish between the two charges.

For related charges, see brazier, cup, lamp.

The Order of the Dragon’s Bowle, of Drachenwald, bears: A dragon passant coward sable charged with a bowl per pale Or and gules.

Elene Kirchenknopf bears: Per bend urdy argent and azure, a bowl and a sinister hand counterchanged.

Ambros Celidonis bears: Vert, in bend sinister a double-sail-backed salamander statant bendwise embowed argent, and a bowl fesswise Or flammant proper.

Bow

Bow (Period)

A bow is a device for shooting arrows, used in hunting or as a weapon, and consisting of a flexible strip of wood strung with cord. It’s found in the canting arms of Bowes, c.1395 [DBA2 214]. The default bow is the “longbow”, and is occasionally so blazoned. The default orientation for the longbow is palewise and strung; the placement of the string (dexter or sinister) has changed over time. Society practice puts the string to sinister by default; when the bow is fesswise, the string is to base.

The bow’s string is taut and straight by default, as stated above; but we also have examples of drawn bows, with the center of the string pulled back and under tension. A drawn bow almost always has an arrow nocked to the string, as seen in the arms of Schütz, 1539 [BSB Cod.Icon 307:545]; this fact is always blazoned. Society armory has examples of other charges besides arrows nocked to the string of a drawn bow; this usage is deemed a step from period practice.

At one point it was ruled that bows in Society armory should not be drawn recurved, but as period longbows, as in the illustration. However, recurved bows were sometimes depicted in period emblazons, as in the arms of Savolax, Finland; and Society bows have often been drawn with recurved limbs. The matter is left to the artist’s discretion.

Persian double bow (SFPP)

A variant of the bow is the “Persian double bow”. This is the Society’s name for a period charge found in Islamic heraldry, in the arms of ‘Ala’ ad-Din Aydaykin ibn Abdullah, d.1285 [Mayer 83]. As a non-European motif, its use carries a step from period practice.

Musical bow (Accepted)

Society armory also has the “musical bow”, sometimes called a “psaltery bow” or “viol bow”; as the name implies, it’s used for playing stringed musical instruments. Though we’ve found no examples of its use as a period charge, it’s allowed in the Society as a period artifact; the illustration is taken from Virdung’s Musica Getutscht, 1511 [Montagu 93]. When found in armory along with a stringed instrument, the simple term “bow” is understood to mean a musical bow.

For related charges, see crossbow. See also arrow.

Giovanni dell’Arco bears: Argent, a bow reversed vert.

Andrew Roriksson bears: Sable, a bow nocked of an arrow Or.

‘Azzah al-Nadirah bears: Azure, on a chevron between two escallops inverted and a Persian double-bow argent, three lotus blossoms in profile azure.

Eowyn nic Wie of Kincora bears: Gules, a bowed psaltery Or between two flaunches ermine and in chief a psaltery bow Or.

Bottle

Two bottles (Period; Accepted)

A bottle is a small vessel, usually of glass or ceramic, with a narrow neck and mouth. There were a wide variety of shapes used in period, but few found their way to heraldry; any period shape of bottle may be used in Society armory. The illustration shows two typical examples; the one on the left is taken from the allusive arms (Italian muscia, a pint measure of wine) of de Muschiaro, mid-15^th C. [Triv 223], where the allusion makes clear that it’s a wine bottle.

The bottle should never be drawn as though transparent, through the use of voiding or chasing; it should be solidly tinctured. The bottle has its mouth to chief by default. For related charges, see amphora, flask. See also whistle (mariner’s).

John Linsdell of Tresco bears: Or, a bottle bendwise inverted azure distilling a goutte, a base gules.

Lorenz Wieland bears: Azure, a winged bottle bendwise sinister between in pall three eating forks tines to center argent.

Bottell, leather

Leather bottell (Period)

The leather bottell is a vessel for water or wine, with hoops to let it be hung (from, e.g., a horse’s saddle). It is a period charge, having been borne by the Worshipful Company of Horners since the end of the 16^th Century [Bromley & Child 141-2]. See also water-bouget.

Svein sutari svithanda bears: Argent, a leather bottell sable between three ogresses.

Boreyne

Boreyne passant (Period)

The boreyne is a monster vaguely similar to a bull, but with a horse’s mane, a lion’s forelegs and tail, an eagle’s hindlegs – to which are added curled horns, spear-headed tongue, and a fin spouting from its crupper. It was used as a canting badge by Borough (or Burgh) c.1466 [Dennys 152]. The boreyne does not seem to have a default posture; the illustration shows a boreyne passant.

Iago of Winged Hills bears as a badge: Or, a boreyne passant to sinister gules.

Bordure

Bordure (Period)

The bordure is an heraldic ordinary around the edge of the shield, typically one-eighth to one-twelfth its width. It is subject to most of the standard treatments – embattled, nebuly, &c – though, because no period examples have been attested, the “bordure flory” is considered a step from period practice. Because it has only one edge, a bordure may not be “dancetty”, nor may it be fimbriated, cotised, or voided.

The bordure has no diminutives in present Society heraldry. Some early Society blazons used the term “bordurelet”, as an indication to the artist that the bordure should be skinny; but this is poor practice, and is no longer done.

The addition of a charged bordure is a common way of differencing, both in medieval and Society heraldry. Bordures surmount all other ordinaries except chiefs and cantons. In the case of the chief, we are told the bordure does not run along the bottom edge of the chief, but rather, the chief completely surmounts the bordure [Parker 73]; but we do find exceptions to this rule in period rolls. The use of both chief and bordure is considered at best poor practice, and is disallowed in the Society when the chief and bordure are of the same tincture.

Bordure denticulada (Period)

The “bordure denticulada” is an Iberian variant of the bordure embattled, with only the crenellations issuant from the edge of the shield. It is a period charge, found in the arms of Echaurj, mid-16^th C. [Armeria 316].

The Prince of the Mists bears: Argent, a crown within a laurel wreath vert, all within a bordure engrailed azure.

Cormacc mac Conaill bears: Sable, a bordure argent.

Aryanhwy merch Catmael bears: Purpure, a bordure ermine.

Teresa de Çaragoça bears: Or, a tree eradicated proper within a bordure denticulada azure.

Book

Open book (Period)

Closed book (Period)

A book is a set of pages of paper or parchment, bound along one edge, with leather or wooden covers. A book may be “open”, with the cover laid flat, or “closed”, with cover shut. As there’s no heraldic default, the open or closed state must be explicitly blazoned. Open books have their spines palewise by default (as in the arms of Oxford University, c.1450 [DBA2 193]), while those of closed books are fesswise by default (as in the arms of Cambridge University, 1572 [Hope 73]). By Society convention, a book “bound proper” is bound in brown leather.

Books are sometimes drawn with seals, or with metal clasps and hinges; these are considered artistic license, and are not normally blazoned in Society heraldry. Books may also have writing on the pages; this too is normally ignored as artistic license, but in cases where there are few, large letters, they may be treated as tertiary charges. See also billet, scroll, tablet (Mosaic).

The College of Boethius bears: Or, five open books in saltire, on a chief azure three laurel wreaths Or.

Emma Randall bears: Sable, three open books Or.

Angharad of the Coppery Shields bears: Vert, three closed books palewise, spines to sinister Or.

Bone

Bone (Period)

Three pairs of rib bones (Period)

A bone is a member of the hard endostructure found in most vertebrates. The default heraldic bone is the human shin-bone (tibia), or its visual equivalent (the thigh-bone or femur, the arm-bone or ulna); such a bone is found in the arms of Newton, c.1460 [RH]. This bone is palewise by default.

“Rib bones” are a specific stylization of bones, found in the canting arms (Portuguese costa) of da Costa, mid-16^th C. [Nobreza xvº]. Rib bones must always be shown in pairs, issuant from the flanks of the shield; three pairs seem to be the norm.

Mistholme

heraldry, illumination, and random jottings

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