Devices - was - Re: Heraldre idea, cont...

James Crouchet crouchet at infinity.ccsi.com
Tue Aug 8 13:16:56 PDT 1995



On Tue, 8 Aug 1995, Mordraut Freyulf wrote:

> 
> >...  For the
> >first return the blazon describes the wyvern as azure, but the person drew
> >it with two colors, which could not be described heraldically.  To me this
> >would be a case of artistic license, to them it is a return.  Instead of
> >registering it as the blazon describes, they returned it, which means that
> >he will now have to wait another 6-8 months:-(
> >
> >One of the little-known quirks of SCA heraldry is that the blazon (text
> description) is not registered.  The emblazon (picture) is registered.
> Therefore is you want your device to pass, draw it according to the heraldic
> rules on the submission form.  After it is passed, draw it however you want.
> In this case the emblazon was not blazonable, therefore it could not be
> registered.
> 
>         If this is truely the case, why bother putting a blazon at all.  I
> always guessed, yup I am not a herald, that they would use the blazon to
> determine exactly what the submitter was trying to draw, IE: colors,
> charges, etc.. if there was any questions on the emblazon.  This would make
> sense if the submitter was not a trained heraldic artist, or did not have a
> heraldic pallet available.
[...]
> Mordraut

And you were right, mostly. Take, for instance, a lion, dormant. Or a 
bear, dormant. Or a panther, dormant. In herald-eze we call this a 
meatloaf. It is often difficult or impossible to tell one species of 
meatloaf from another on the devices we get. For purposes of conflict 
checking we must check all meatloaves. But to register it we want to name 
the particular meatloaf YOU wanted. The balzon can give us an otherwise 
absent clue.

Now if your meatloaf looks more like an eagle, displayed but is blazoned 
as a lion, dormant our little heraldic brains will overload and we will 
come back to you to find out what you really wanted.

Perhaps it will ease your mind if you think of returns, not as 
rejections, but as second chances! ;-)


Savian, ROTFL



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