Monday, June 6, 2016

Some Historical Heraldry Lives Again


It is always a pleasure to see people bringing heraldry back to life as a decorative art, and even more so when it can also be used to educate and to keep the history of a place and a family alive.

A May 31, 2016 article in the Exeter Express & Echo discusses one such instance. The article is entitled "Family history brought to life at Killerton House thanks to hand-stitched tapestries," and that title pretty much gives you a synopsis of the article.


A group of National Trust volunteers are creating new embroidered cushions for sixteen chairs at Killerton House, the former home of the Acland family. The cushions, when finished, will have the Acland arms used by the baronets, knights, and gentlemen of the family between the 16th and 20th Centuries. According to Burke's General Armory, those arms are Checky argent and sable a fess gules, borne quarterly with Palmer and Fuller (without specifying which of the 46(!) Palmers or 9 Fullers is being referenced. My 1938 copy of Burke's Peerage and Baronetage has the arms of the 13th Baronet as Acland quartered with Wrothe and Dyke).

The article gives a fair bit more of the background of this project as well as some of the people involved, not to mention the amount of work that is going into each one of these seat pads: each coat of arms has taken about 90 hours to complete. That is in addition to the background, which they estimate will take another 100 or so hours.

It's a nice article, and an interesting look into how some folks are making historical heraldry live again. You can find it on the website of the Exeter Express & Echo at http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Family-history-brought-life-Killerton-House/story-29340274-detail/story.html

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