The badger is a carnivorous burrowing beast with a reputation for tenacity. It is also called a “brock”, “bauson”, or “grey”, especially for canting purposes: e.g., the arms of Brokhole, temp. Henry IV [DBA2 293], or the badge of Lord Grey of Codnor, 1392 [Hope2 183]. The badger has no “proper” tincture, or rather, its proper tincture is too ill-defined to be registerable; but it’s most frequently drawn with distinctive facial markings, as in nature, to aid identification. The badger is statant by default.
Nachum Avram ben Benjamin ben Meir bears: Azure, a brock passant argent, incensed proper.
Roesia de Grey bears: Vert, a badger rampant Or maintaining a rose argent, barbed, slipped and leaved sable.
Stiamna Gruamda bears: Or, in pale two badgers sable.
The ape is a simian beast, which the medievals considered a mockery of man. Period armory didn’t distinguish between an “ape” (which has no tail) and a “monkey” (which does); Society armory makes the distinction for the sake of the artist. Both forms are found as period charges: the ape, as early as c.1340 in the arms of Affenstein [Zurich 241] and as late as 1605 in the arms of von Prag [Siebmacher 21]; the monkey, in the arms of de Aymo, mid-15th C. [Triv 47] and as the crest of FitzGerald, 1601 [Bedingfeld 59]. Society armory also permits more specific forms to be registered (e.g., the “gorilla”, the “spider monkey”, &c), so long as they were known to period Europe; many such forms carry a step from period practice.
When statant or passant, the ape is on all fours, in the manner of beasts (unlike humans, who are statant or passant on two feet). If an ape is “collared” or “chained”, the collar goes around its waist, not its neck. Of usages peculiar to the Society, the ape “in its vanity” is gazing into a hand mirror that it’s grasping in its hand.
The illustration shows an ape (monkey) passant and collared. See also human figure.
Estasia de Fiorenza bears: Argent, a monkey sejant erect in its vanity, chained gules.
Ysabeau de Vézelay bears: Purpure, an ape passant Or.
Shait ben Mikha’el bears: Per pale purpure and gules, two gorillas statant respectant argent.
