[ANSTHRLD] Blazon emblazon Help

[tmcd at panix.com]

"BOWERMAN, MATTHEW S. (JSC-DV1) (USA)"
<matthew.s.bowerman1 at jsc.nasa.gov> wrote:
> I need a little help with the a device.  What would the following
> device look like.  Please describe in laymen's terms, as I have the
> blazon.
>
> "Ermine, a red fox couchant between two tiger lilies, slipped and
> leaved, conjoined in annulo proper."

It's Joselyn Allyne Reynard.  It can help to provide all the info you
have, even if you think it might not be relevant; we can then use that
to look up more info.  It can also help to explain what precisely
you're asking about or for -- are there confusing terms?  Have you
been asked to draw this?  Is it a conflict check?  In the text below,
I may be giving you more info than you need or want.

With the name, we can look in the original Laurel ruling, here at
<http://www.sca.org/heraldry/loar/1980/05/lar.htm>, to see if Laurel
wrote anything at the time of registration.  Unfortunately, there's no
artistic notes.  But it shows that you didn't give the whole blazon:
it ends
    (Vulpes vulpes, Lilium tigrinum).
Before the early 1990s, it was common to get Linnaean binomial species
names to identify the exact species.  (It's not done since.)  That can
help in figuring out proper tinctures.

The field is ermine, white with black ermine tails.  The arms of
Brittany were "Ermine.", plain, and can be seen at
<http://www.geocities.co.jp/Milano/7193/gif/m232b.gif>

"Red fox" is not, as it might appear at first glance, describing the
color but describing the species.  In blazons, the tincture (color
and/or metal) follows the charge.  "Proper" means that the tincture is
the heraldic default, or if there is none, how it is commonly found in
nature.  "Vulpes vulpes" also emphasizes that the species is "red
fox": a quick Web search confirms that that's the Linnaean binomial
for what is commonly know as the "red fox".

The CoA Glossary of Terms, available under
<http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/regs.html>, says (Table 3,
Conventional "Proper" Colorings):
    Fox      Red with black "socks" and white at tip of tail

Couchant: lying down but with neck and head up (as opposed to dormant,
in which the neck and head are down, because "dormant" means
"sleeping").  It's facing dexter (the viewer's left).

For the flower, the next tincture specified is "proper", and there's
no conventional proper listed in the CoA Glossary, so "proper" means
"as it is usually seen in nature".  I plugged in "Lilium tigrinum"
into Google Image Search at <http://images.google.com/>.
Unfortunately, I have my doubts about whether everything shown was
correctly identified, as there's a fair amount of variation.  They
appear to have red/orange flowers, often with dark spots or stripes,
trumpet-shaped but the petals (maybe 4-8 or so) often curling back to
near the base.  The anthers and pistils (?  those reproductive organs,
whatever they are) are often long and prominent.  The stalks
("slipped" in the blazon) are long and skinny.  The leaves ("and
leaved") can be few, I think, and they are long and pointed (rather
like a broad-leaved grass or something).

"Conjoined in annulo": the two slip+leaves+flowers are arranged in a
circle "()" -- that's "in annulo", 'lying as if on an annulus' (a
ring).  "Conjoined" means "touching".  However, the blazon doesn't say
which ends the flowers are on, so there's four possibilities.  I
suspect that one flower is at top and one at bottom, so that the
flowers are sniffing each others' butts, as it were.  But there's
still two possibilities, clockwise and counterclockwise.

Which is the last piece of information: why were you asking?  If it's
a conflict check, or you ran across the blazon and you were curious,
then that should be enough.

However, if you're doing an Order of the Oak shield, for example, you
probably want the precise artistic details.  Here's where knowing the
name helps: I'm not mistaken, Joselyn Allyne Reynard is Joceann, who
was (is still?) active in the Steppes.  If you care about precise
details, someone might be able to tell you how they've seen it drawn,
like if she's made a banner for herself, or on an Oak of the Steppes
shield (if she already has one), or one could ask Edwin FitzLloyd or
Mistress Braaaanwyn or something.  Also, given the name, I looked in
the O&A and saw that her only registrations were in 5/80.  That means
that her forms should be scanned and on the archive CDs provided to
Laurel staff.  Since I happen to be Laurel Clerk, I have them at home
and I can check tonight if you like.  If that fails, I can go pull the
forms (over at Mari's, 10 minutes away) or have the archivists pull
the forms.

So: what would you like?

Daniel de Lincolia
--
Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com; tmcd at us.ibm.com is my work address