Thursday, March 14, 2019

A Little Commercial Heraldry, Part 2



Another nice bit of commercial heraldry was found adorning the shop of Ernest Jones, "The Diamond & Watch Specialist" on Whitefriars Street in Canterbury.


Here's a closeup of the achievement of arms itself:


One of the things that threw me off a little was that in hunting about for more information on these arms, while the field on this shield is solid gold with a quarterly cross, other images of these arms (for example, in an image found on Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Jones_(retailer)#/media/File:Ernest_Jones,_Putney_Exchange_01.jpg) the arms are quarterly or and argent).

Assuming that the arms here are miscolored, then the blazon would be: Quarterly or and argent on a cross quarterly gules and azure a lion's head cabossed or langued gules on a chief per pale azure and gules a hanging balance or.

The unicorn supporters each have a quarterly shield hanging about their necks, and the demi-saint is holding a chalice with his left hand. The motto is Concordia Integritas Industria (Harmony, Integrity, Industry).

I feel certain the whole achievement is just chock full of meaning and symbolism. And counterchanging.

The design feels a tad "busy" to me, and yet it seems to come together pretty well. Still, it's not something that you could easily work into or as a commercial logo.

Still, I suspect that no one seeing this coat of arms is going to mistake for that of some other firm.

And it's not all that often that you seen an entire achievement of arms out on the street that aren't the Royal Arms of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. So this was a nice change of pace while wandering about the streets of Canterbury, England on a fine fall day!

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