Heraldry in the Streets

Another coat of arms that can be found on the Titche-Goettinger Building, of which building I spoke on this blog recently, in downtown Dallas is the arms of Spain, or at least, the quartered arms of Castile and León.

Overall, I find the design interesting, in that it can be taken as a comparatively simple shield (of Castile and León) on one of those florid shield shapes where parts of the edges are formed into rolls, a style popular in the 16th Century, which is placed on a shield shaped like a chamfron (horse head armor) popular in Italy in the 16th Century, itself placed on another one of those florid “scroll-ly” shields.  (The styles are dated according to the chart of shield shapes in Ottfried Neubecker’s Heraldry: Sources, Symbols and Meaning.)

Why Spain, on the streets of Dallas?  Well, because, of course, what is now Texas was originally claimed by Spain, before it was claimed by France, and later by Mexico, prior to becoming an independent republic.