ANSTHRLD - Need conflict check (Walter)

[tmcd at jump.net]

On Mon, 13 Mar 2000, Teceangl <tierna at agora.rdrop.com> wrote:
> Under normal circumstances taking out half a semy is worth nothing,
> as it's still in the 6+ charges range.

Indeed.  infinity / 2 == infinity.

> as it is a definite arrangement change to the charges.

I concur.

> Were the entire device semy of hearts I would have expected to see:
>     Per bend vert semy of hearts argent and sable semy of hearts argent.

Awkward.

> or
>     Per bend vert and sable, overall semy of hearts argent.

Not "overall".  CoA Glossary of Terms:

    Overall. A term applied to charges that cross over both edges of
    another charge to lie on the field on either side. For instance,
    Or, a lion rampant purpure and overall a fess sable has the fess
    starting on the field on one side, crossing over the center of the
    lion, and lying on the field on the other side.

More likely,
      Per bend vert and sable, all semy of hearts argent.

> I had no problem figuring out where the hearts go.

I did, due to brain fart.  Now that I think on it, there was some
discussion on SCA Herald's (to which I contributed, actually) on this
topic.  More below.

> Stick a comma after the vert and it should be clearer.
>     Per bend vert, and sable semy of hearts argent.

Usually, punctuation should be irrelevant to a blazon.  I think this
is a case where it's useful.  I wonder if Laurel would register
     Per bend vert plain[,] and sable semy of hearts argent.
It's utterly unambiguous, I think, but I can only find examples of
"plain" registered as a modifier to charges (most notably, "cotised
plain" when it's around an ordinary with a complex shape).  "Plain"
is, however, used in *discussing* plain fields.

In the discussion in the SCA Herald's archive file 199512c,
(Subject:.*Fields Seme) I wrote, concerning another example,

    As you note, with or without the comma, they look like the mullety
    is only on the sable side.  If the mullets are on both halves, I
    believe "all" has to be added, as in (7/93 LoAR, acceptances)

        Ariane la Fileuse.  Name and device.  Per chevron azure and
        argent, all mullety counterchanged.

I also noted that if
    Per bend X and Y semy of hearts
is interpreted as meaning that the hearts are only on the Y part, then
we can easily express the "everwhere" meaning with 
    Per bend X and Y all semy of hearts

However, if
    Per bend X and Y semy of hearts
were interpreted that hearts were all over X and Y, in general there
would be no easy way to blazon "semy of hearts, but only on the
sinister chief triangle".

Later, I quoted

    On an unrelated topic, I just found this quote from the 4/94
    Laurel Cover Letter: "The only `rule' is that blazon should be
    precise and unambiguous and (as the legal profession will aver)
    punctuation and ambiguity go hand in hand."
                           -- Stephen Friar, Bishop's Caundle
                              The Heraldry Gazette, March 1994, p. 8

Apparently, at the time I thought that "semy" would apply only to the
last partial field division mentioned, and the list agreed.
Apparently, my brain is subject to bit rot.

Daniel de Lincolia, making reservations at the old heralds' home
-- 
Tim McDaniel (home); Reply-To: tmcd at jump.net; 
if that fail, my work address is tmcd at us.ibm.com.

============================================================================
Go to http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.