[ANSTHRLD] A little more help if you please...

[Jennifer Smith]

Hallgeirr wrote:
> I would like to get a check of a proposed blazon.
> 
> Vert, a winged wagon wheel Or within an annulet Or, between 
> three mullets of
> five greater and five lesser points argent.
> 
> The color drawing can be viewed at
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/18277217@N08/3461689066/

Very good blazon!

The device design, however, does have a few problems.

The first and most notable one is that the wagon wheel seems to be in "trian
aspect", that is, drawn in perspective (3D) instead of flat head-on, 2D.
That has long been cause for return, except for those few rare charges that
were depicted in 3D in period heraldry -- things like dice, for example. For
reference, this is codified in RfS VIII.1.c, which says:

	1. Armorial Simplicity. - All armory must be simple in design.
		c. Armorial Depth - Armory may not employ depth of field as
a design element.
			i. Perspective - Charges may only be drawn in
perspective if they were so depicted in period armory.

The obvious solution would be to turn the wheel until it's nice and flat,
with the wings coming out from the rim instead of the hub; that probably
doesn't get across whatever idea your submitter had originally, but we must
remember that there's a difference between heraldic design and art that you
might see in the illuminated border of a page in a book. 

The next problem that would be introduced then is that, as I see it, you
have a wagon wheel, pair of wings, and an annulet all in the same charge
group. This is cause for return under the "no slot-machine" rule: RfS
VIII.1.a says:

	1. Armorial Simplicity. - All armory must be simple in design.
		a. Tincture and Charge Limit - Armory must use a limited
number of tinctures and types of charges.
			...As another guideline, three or more types of
charges should not be used in the same group.


All of this can be found in the Rules for Submission (commonly abbreviated
RfS), found at http://heraldry.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/rfs.html. It's long
and contains a lot, so for armory skip ahead and read sections VII and VIII
for general design notes (and IX for more common-sense stuff). Section X is
how we do conflict checking, but section XI is also occasionally useful
(particlarly subsection 3).

And of course this list is *very* helpful, so keep posting questions!

-Emma