A bucket is a flat-bottomed container, with a handle and cylindrical or slightly tapering sides, used for hauling water. It’s a period charge, found in the arms of Whitwell, c.1480 [DBA2 315; Bedingfeld 58]. The default bucket is assumed to be made of wood; if another material (e.g., leather) is intended, it must be specified in the blazon. A “bucket proper” is brown, the color of wood. For related charges, see tub.
Mateusz z Plocka bears: Counter-ermine, a bucket Or.
Linnett of Monadh bears: Gules, three buckets in pale Or.
Morgan Catriona Bruce bears as a badge: A wooden bucket proper.
A brewer’s scoop is a tool used by beer brewers for sampling the mash, consisting of a bucket at the end of a long pole. The brewer’s scoop is a period charge, dating to 1548 in Vigil Raber’s Armorial of the Arlberg Brotherhood of St. Christopher, fo.91; it’s also in the episcopal arms of Peugelberg, late 16th C. [BSB Cod.Icon 333:76].
The brewer’s scoop is palewise by default, with the bucket in chief. See also hammer.
Philip de Greylonde bears: Per pale sable and Or, in saltire two brewer’s scoops counterchanged.
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-15th 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.
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.
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-16th C. [Bedingfeld 58]. The illustration shows a slightly more ornate, footed form, as found in the canting arms (German Schüssel) of Raumschüssl, mid-16th 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.
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.
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-15th 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.
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 16th Century [Bromley & Child 141-2]. See also water-bouget.
Svein sutari svithanda bears: Argent, a leather bottell sable between three ogresses.
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.
A birdcage is a small enclosure made of wire bars, in which birds are kept. It’s found in the arms of Walther von der Vogelweide, c.1300 [Manesse]. The blazon should specify whether the birdcage’s door is open or closed; but it must have a bird, as it’s otherwise not possible to tell it’s a birdcage. The illustration shows a closed birdcage with its bird. See also nest.
Aislynn de Darkenhall bears: Azure, within an open birdcage Or a dove reguardant argent, a bordure engrailed argent semy of roses proper.
A besom is a bundle of twigs, bound to the end of a staff, and used for brushing or sweeping. It was the medieval precursor of the modern household broom, and is sometimes called a “birch-broom”; but it should never be blazoned simply as a “broom”, as that term is used in heraldry for the broom plant or planta genista. The besom is a period charge, found in the arms of Brome, c.1500 [DBA2 315]; it has its straws to chief by default. For related charges, see brush.
The Order of the Baronial Broom, of the Barony of Nordskogen, bears: Azure, two besoms in saltire surmounted by another palewise inverted, all Or.
Líadan Winter bears: Sable estencely argent, a besom bendwise sinister inverted within a bordure Or.
Angharad ferch Moriddig Hir bears: Or, a besom sable and two flaunches azure gouty d’eau.
