Rhinoceros (Period)

The rhinoceros is a ponderous beast, slow to anger, and famed for its hide’s inpenetrability.  It’s a period charge, found as the crest of William Wade, 1574 [Woodcock & Robinson, Heraldry in Historic Houses of Britain, p.163], and as the crest of the Worshipful Company of Apothecaries, 1617 [Bromley & Child 1-3].  The period heraldic examples seem to be directly based on a woodcut by Albrecht Dürer, 1515 – as is the illustration.  The rhinoceros is statant by default.

Süleyman al-Hazar bears:  Vert, in pale three rhinoceroses passant argent.

Kendall Tempest bears:  Argent, a rhinoceros rampant gules.

Fedor Turov syn bears:  Azure, a rhinoceros Or.