[ANSTHRLD] Fwd: banner question

Britt tierna.britt at gmail.com
Wed Mar 19 02:53:44 PDT 2008


>  i was hoping to fing out if a particular heraldry design was already taken
>  and if it would be acceptable for use in the society.  just wanting to get a
>  heads up before i submit it formally.  it's my family heraldry but i've
>  altered the design somewhat on accident by inverting the scallops.  the
>  first image is the original (and only one i could find) and the second i got
>  by singling the sheild and trying to clean it up but given the small size of
>  the image the colors all blured an i accidentally inverted the scallops.  i
>  printed it as a full page image and scaned it back in after drawing the
>  borders through the pixelation.

That's a castle variant with pennants and would likely be
registerable, but the chief is a no-go. What's on the red
is...unblazonable and unreproducable from blazon. Being able to
describe the design in standard wording, and the ability of a
competent herald who understands blazon to be able to reproduce the
design using the words alone, are required of SCA heraldry (and indeed
most real-world heraldic authorities). The motif on the chief (the red
stripe across the top) isn't heraldic and isn't describable using any
heraldic wording that I can come up with. I'd be surprised if anyone
could describe it.

Looking at the original design, which is quite stylized, it seems that
if it were once an heraldic design it's been altered into more of a
folk artistic motif, at least in this depiction. Alteration back to
something heraldic and blazonable would be required to render it
registerable.

I'm not certain much of anything of the yellow detailing on the chief
is possible under any rules of heraldry, as there's no scalloped line
quite like that. Honestly it seems more like a decorative border from
a manuscript page than anything found on a coat of arms.

My suggestion? Change what's on the chief. You might consider plain
red (gules) and make the bottom edge scalloped (invected).
There's a piece of armory registered to Miguel Javier de Murcia -
March of 1997 (via Ansteorra): Or, a tower and on a chief gules three
estoiles Or.
Towers and castles were used interchangeable in period heraldry and
therefore there is no difference for them. That puts the design as
pictured now in conflict with Miguel because you'd need two
differences from a gules castle/tower on an ?Or (yellow) field and
this has one - frou-frou versus estoiles on the chief.
Making the chief plain red with a scalloped line would be different
enough because there's be nothing on the chief versus estoiles on the
chief for one of the two required Clear Differences, and the chief
would have a complex (not straight) edge rather than the straight edge
of Miguel's for a second Clear Difference.

That's just one suggestion, of course. But it would clear up the
problem of not being able to describe the chief heraldically.  I'm
sure others will have further information and suggestions as they join
the conversation.

- Teceangl
-- 
Heraldry is designed to be easily reproduced by anyone who sees the arms. -
http://www.s-gabriel.org/docs/clichelist.html



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