Monday, March 6, 2023

It's On a Shield, But Is It Heraldry?


Wandering back out onto the streets of Cambridge from our visit to King's College Chapel, I ran across a couple of, well, I'm not entirely sure what to term them.

The first is pretty definitely a logo, even though it is placed upon a shield.


This is the logo of Malloy's Craft Butchery (a fancy way of describing a butcher's shop, but there you go).


The logo, a shield shape charged with a cleaver and a boning knife in saltire. Certainly appropriate for a butchery (even a "craft butchery"), but is it really heraldry?

Yeah, I don't think so, either.

Our second candidate in today's "Is It Heraldry" competition, is this one, on the Fosters' Bank building:


It's not really a logo, consisting as it does of only an ornate letter F (for Fosters) on an Italianate shield being supported by a, well, it's not a cherub (no wings). Basically, the supporter is a mostly naked young boy, wearing a loincloth or diaper (what my English friends would call a "nappy").


But though it's not quite a logo, it's not really heraldry, either, despite the shield and supporter.

Yet what a couple of interesting things to run across while making my way about the streets of Cambridge, England!

No comments:

Post a Comment