Okay, let's take a short break from all of the real and semi-real heraldry that we saw in Copenhagen, and share with you something I have talked about before as being, well, not necessarily the "bane" of my existence, but certainly an annoyance, and sometimes even a "trigger."
I am speaking, of course, about the non-heraldry that is the blank shield or the blank cartouche.
It's not heraldry; there are no charges, no lines of division, no colors (at least no colors that demark it as heraldry). It is, to all effects and purposes, a blank shield, on upon which heraldry could easily be placed, but which, like a mask, shows us nothing.
And the really annoying part of these blank shields in Copenhagen? A couple of them are to be found on royal palaces where the greater arms of Denmark ought rightfully to be displayed, and one of which is already surrounded by the collar of the Order of the Elephant!
Anyway, here are some of the shield blanks that I saw:
I swear, to see all of this wasted heraldic potential just makes me want to go back with a ladder, a chisel, paintbrushes, and cans of the seven heraldic tinctures (or, argent, azure, gules, sable, vert, and purpure, or for those non-heralds reading this: yellow, white, blue, red, black, green, and purple), and spend some time -- at least until they come and haul me off to jail for vandalism -- putting up coats of arms on all of these blank shields.
Who's with me?
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