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.

Bell

Bell (Period)

Hawk’s bell (Period); hand bell (Accepted)

A bell is a cup-shaped musical instrument that rings when struck. The default heraldic bell is the “church bell”; it’s sometimes blazoned that way, and some Society examples show it in its stock (like the standard representation of the Liberty Bell). The bell is an ancient charge, dating from c.1295 in the allusive arms of Porter [ANA2 127].

Another bell found in armory is the “hawk’s bell”, of the type found on a hawk’s jesses. It’s found in the canting arms of Bellinkhoven, c.1370 [Gelre 102], and the arms of von Ernau, 1605 [Siebmacher 46]. The French term is grelot; Society blazons may also term it a “jester’s bell” or a “dancer’s bell”.

Cowbell (Accepted)

Of the types of bell peculiar to Society armory, we find the “hand bell”, with a handle on the top: a period artifact, the hand bell was used first as a public alarm or signal (as with town criers), but by 1300 were tuned instruments used in processionals [Grove 10:745-6]. We also find the “Oriental bell”, one of their cylindrical temple bells, drawn much as a church bell but with no flare at the rim. Finally, there’s the “cowbell”, worn by cattle to aid the cowherd in finding them – and evidently, a period folk instrument as well, documented as such in Virdung’s Musica Getutscht, 1511 [Montagu 91]. All of these bells, like the church bell, have their clappers to base by default.

For related charges, see zil. See also vair-bell.

The Baron of Carillion bears: Or, a bell within a laurel wreath sable.

Uberto Renaldi bears: Gules, three church bells argent.

Clarel Belton bears: Vert, three hawk’s bells argent.

Isabella Flora Turpin bears: Per fess vert and argent, a hand bell and a terrapin statant to sinister counterchanged.

Rosamund von Schwyz bears as a badge: On a cowbell argent a fleur-de-lys purpure.

Bagpipe

Bagpipe (Period)

A bagpipe is a double-reed musical instrument with a windbag that also supplies sonant force to a set of drone reeds. It’s sometimes more fully blazoned “a set of bagpipes”; though known across Europe, bagpipes are most strongly associated with Scotland. Bagpipes are found in period armory, in the canting arms (Italian cornamusa) of Cornamusini, c.1550 [BSB Cod.Icon 278:287], and as the badge of Aubrey of Breconshire, 1531 [Siddons II.2 18]. One amusing example, the arms of Fitz-Ercald, c.1520, shows three hares playing bagpipes [DBA1 294].

As to the bagpipe’s depiction, the Luttrell Psalter, c.1340, has an example of a single-droned bagpipe; no period bagpipe has been found with more than two drones. The third drone wasn’t added to the Highland bagpipes until the 18^th Century [Grove 2:472]; three-droned pipes are therefore disallowed in Society armory. The bagpipe’s chanter is to dexter by Society default.

Richardus Pfeiffer von Karlstadt bears as a badge: Vert, a set of bagpipes argent.

Conchúr McClawrane Vc Leoid bears: Argent, an arrow bendwise gules, overall a bagpipe azure.

Malcolm of Fife bears: Azure, in pale two bagpipes argent within a bordure Or semy of acorns proper.

Mistholme

heraldry, illumination, and random jottings

Archives

Bow

Bell

Bagpipe