[ANSTHRLD] bell pendant from decrescent (was: Blazoning and Winterkingdom)

[Coblaith Muimnech]

Finnacan wrote:
> He is wanting a silver crescent (descrescent - facing the viewers  
> right) and he wants a silver bell hanging inside the crescent,  
> attached to the upper curve of the crescent, all on a green field.
>
> The closest I can come is this; "Vert, a bell dependant within a  
> decrescent argent."

and later:
> I thought about using "maintaining", but I couldn't find an example  
> of a crescent of any sort maintaining something.. . .Whenever I  
> found a bell (classic or church bell, not a hawks bell or a hand  
> bell) attached to another object, it was blazoned as being  
> "dependant" from that object.
>
> . . . Is the concern that my wording doesn't clearly state the bell  
> is attached to the upper point or horn of the crescent?

I'm not seeing much use of "dependant" in the online O&A.  The  
standard modern spelling, "dependent", is used in most blazons in  
which the term appears, and there are significantly more charges  
blazoned as "pendant" than as "dependent".  The former also has the  
advantage of meaning "hanging from" in ordinary English, which ought  
to make it easy for a herald or artist who's not seen it used in  
blazon before to understand.


If the bell is small enough to be a maintained charge, the decrescent  
must be the primary charge, and the primary charge is always blazoned  
first.  So I'd say something like:

    Vert, a decrescent enclosing a bell pendant from its upper horn  
argent.

or possibly:

    Vert, a decrescent enclosing and conjoined in chief to a bell  
argent.


If it's large enough to be a sustained charge, the two are probably  
co-primaries.  So the above blazons would still work, but so would:

    Vert, a bell within and pendant from a decrescent argent.

or:

    Vert, a bell within and conjoined in chief to a decrescent argent.


If you can upload a sketch and send a link to the list, better  
discussion of the details should be possible.


Coblaith Muimnech
<mailto:Coblaith at sbcglobal.net>
<http://coblaith.net>