[ANSTHRLD] (no subject)

[Bob Wade]

The education articles at http://heraldry.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/education.html
are a good place to start.
 

--- On Tue, 10/21/08, Tim McDaniel <tmcd at panix.com> wrote:

From: Tim McDaniel <tmcd at panix.com>
Subject: Re: [ANSTHRLD] (no subject)
To: "Heralds List, Kingdom of Ansteorra - SCA, Inc." <heralds at lists.ansteorra.org>
Date: Tuesday, October 21, 2008, 6:16 PM

On Tue, 21 Oct 2008, Childers, Jeff <Jeff.Childers at ttuhsc.edu> wrote:
> http://ganglia.ttuhsc.edu/~jchilder/
>
> I know only the VERY basics of heraldry.
>
> I have done my best to blazon it. But on the image you see the 4 quills
> I am not sure exactly how to word it.

"Difficulty in blazon can be an indication of non-period style."
(Or not knowing enough blazon.)  I don't know of a way to blazon this.
The middle two alone would be "in saltire crossed at the nibs" or
some
such.  If there were three or four bunched closer together, it might
be something like "a sheaf of three quill pens crossed at the nibs".

I'd blazon it

     Per chevron raguly sable ermined purpure and argent ermined
     purpure, a griffin rampant queue forchy contourney, a
     lion rampant queue forchy argent, and 4 quill pens [arrangement
     hard to blazon], a bordure lozengy purpure and argent.4 quill pens crossed at the tip in fess and in chevron inverted?  Since it has wings, the griffin is segreant and is in it's default posture.  So is the lion.  A griffin queue forchy and a lion queue forchy combattant?
Various notes:

- As defined by the College of Arms, a "quill" is something to do
with
   yarn, and "quill pens" are writing instruments.  I *think* a
period
   quill pen had a small tuft of feather rather than the full ones,
   but I think these are still registerable without comment -- but I've
   obviously gotten rusty of late.

- you can't register an ermined tincture of "COLOR ermined
COLOR".
   The ermine spots must have "good contrast": "no color on
color,
   no metal on metal".

- I'd draw this raguly a little more slanted: to me, they look like
   halfway between embattled and raguly.  But other people may have
   other opinions.

- It's what the SCA calls "slot machine".  There are three types
of
   charge in one charge group (gryphon, lion, and quill pens).
   That's not registerable, per
   <http://heraldry.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/rfs.html#8.1>
       "As another guideline, three or more types of charges should not
       be used in the same group."
   but that "guideline" in practice is a hard rule.

- It wasn't until I read the blazon that I realized that there was a
   griffin and a lion -- I'd glanced over the design quickly.  I think
   there's enough difference in types to avoid a return for "sword and
   dagger", as the CoA Glossary of Terms
   (<http://heraldry.sca.org/heraldry/coagloss.html>) puts it:

       Sword and Dagger rule.

           The popular name given to rulings which disallow the use of
           similar but non-identical charges together on the field or
           in the same charge group. In Gules, a dragon and a wyvern
           combattant argent the dragon and the wyvern are both on the
           field, and are similar but not identical; therefore this
           design violates the rule. ...

   The difference here is "artistic only": wyverns and dragons get no
   difference, they're just drawn with different numbers of legs.
   Griffins and lions were distinguished in period.

   Nevertheless, I think you should consider whether you want two
   charges so similar on the same design, with the visual confustion it
   may cause, without regard to whether it's legal or not.

- The bordure basically shares a tincture with half the field (argent
   versus ermine).  I'd have to look at precedents to see whether
   that's registerable.Al-Jamal responded that it's possible when asked during commentary on September's ILoI.  I'm not sure if you can tincture a bordure lozengy, however.

- <http://heraldry.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/rfs.html#8.1>
       As a rule of thumb, the total of the number of tinctures plus
       the number of types of charges in a design should not exceed
       eight.
   This design is right at the border:
       griffin + lion + quill pens + bordure +
       sable-ermined-purpure + argent-ermined-purpure + argent + purpure
   (Furs count as a separate tincture.)

   But I found this design to be more complicated visually than the
   blazon or the "rule of thumb complexity" would indicate.
   Perhaps it's the lines slanting at various angles; maybe it's the
   disparate charge types.

I'd suggest that you look through some period armory and see what
things were done in period.  Foster's book, for example, shows earlier
period armory pretty much.  If you do want complexity, you might look
up Tudor armory.


> If you want to tell me what it is that's great BUT if you know of
> some resources that discuss this I would like to understand the
> concept behind clustered items to make a charge.

I'm sorry that I haven't the time at the moment to suggest where to
read up on the art of armory and blazonry.

Danihel de Lindocollino
-- 
Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com
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