[ANSTHRLD] Achievements

[Diane Rudin]

Rather than try to answer five separate emails on this subject, I'm
going to catch up from my weekend-out-of-town email with this one
missive.

Folks have been talking about achievements, and what components are
period.  A book that covers this info well is Woodcock & Robinson's
*Oxford Guide to Heraldry*, although the emphasis is on English
practices.  For those wishing to add a dash of the Continental to
their achievements, check out Neubecker's *Heraldry*.  Von Volborth
is an okay source on Continental practice, although it leans more
toward the Victorian in its choice of illustrations.  (I consider
Fox-Davies to be so useless for my research that I think I sold mine
off a few years ago.  Victorian = blech!)

It is worth noting that supporters need to be capable of, well,
*supporting* something -- as in holding it up -- and are therefore
historically critters.  (Historically, in this context, means "SCA
period".  We aren't gonna talk about the horrors perpetrated in the
Baroque, Victorian & modern eras.  We have enough problems with the
horrors perpetrated in the Renaissance.)  A tower cannot be a
supporter; a needle cannot be a supporter; a flower cannot be a
supporter.  Supporters need to be from kingdom Animalia.

Tostig, I'm fairly certain I have at least one book with an eagle
supporter in a period achievement.  My best period heraldry sources
are in Pearland right now, but I will be getting them back at
Coronation, if not before.

Etienne is quite right that achievement documents (the period term is
"grant of arms", BTW) are very cool and hardly ever done.  This is in
part due to the huge emphasis on massively over-elaborate originals
for temporary ceremonial officers ("champion scrolls") at both the
local and kingdom level.  The time and talent of our very limited
pool of artists is quite consumed by these efforts.  Meanwhile, most
peers can't get an original patent, much less anyone get an
achievement document.

The second reason is the near-fatal shortage of scribes
("calligraphers") in Ansteorra.  Achievement documents are
text-intensive, and few people feel up to that quantity of work.  (I
have no idea why.  I find that the text takes FAR less time to render
than the artwork.  But I'm told that I'm a freak.)  Related to that
is the dearth of heralds' painters.  However, anyone with access to
*copyright-free* clip-art and a light table can manage a passable
achievement design; this is NOT the case with scribal work.  

The third reason is lack of publicity.  No one knows anymore that
these can be made.  I hope to be addressing this in the future in the
most obvious way possible:  making some and displaying them in
public.

Annes (I think it was she!) talked about other forms of achievement
display.  There were at one time a number of individuals and baronies
with achievement banners, created by either Branwyn or Alisandre. 
(Muirell made a new one for the Steppes before she moved to Florida.)
 But most of those have long since worn out, and both of those
artists have retired from SCA work (as far as I can tell).  The only
achievement display I can remember seeing recently (other than the
kingdom and baronial ones) is Eule's, which he had up at Lysts last
year.

Sara and I soon will be working on the companion volume to the
revised  charter texts -- the achievement texts.  We decided to cut
them into separate documents to reduce confusion.  This will also
allow for a greatly-expanded discussion of how to make achievement
documents.

Estril, I would be happy to teach a class at AHSS on achievement
documents and display.  Do people think I should do one hour or two? 
Note that this would not be a "heraldry" class or a "C&I" class, but
for both.

--Serena, Blanc Gryffon


 
____________________________________________________________________________________
Never miss an email again!
Yahoo! Toolbar alerts you the instant new Mail arrives.
http://tools.search.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/mail/