[ANSTHRLD] Helms in SCA achievements

[BOWERMAN, MATTHEW S. (JSC-DV1) (USA)]

Greetings all:
I misspoke myself when I said SCA, instead of specifying Ansteorra my good
Lord Daniel de Lincolia.  As far a barred or non-barred visors go, this was
a practice in England, as I specified, and I will provide the sources when I
can get at my library at home. (big grin).  One use of bard visors was to
denote rank in addition to the coronets, and crowns used.  As to the why of
red, I can only venture that the Collage of Arms, after their first
visitations done in 1530 -1580, the did a few in this time, depending on the
area.  Anyway, The College of Arms wanted to start insuring some type of
continuity in the way arms were displayed regardless of the artist, how
effective this was, I do not know.   Lord Daniel de Lincolia also stated
"that unless it's specifically a barred visor, which need not be the case,
you couldn't tell what's going on inside the helmet".  This is very true,
and as you point out, only comes into question when you have a barred visor,
and happen to be a Squire, or Gentlemen instead of a peer.  My interest lies
in the fact that I use a bard visor for my helm and wish to follow the
conventions used in period, and was wondering if the SCA, or in our case
Ansteorra had any specific requirement beyond those listed which are not as
specific as their period counterparts, thank God!


Rodrigo