What Can I Do With My Coat of Arms? Part 10

A couple of ideas for using your heraldry in your home office have very likely already occurred to you. But just in case they haven't yet, here's a few possibilities:

Stationery, of course, with your armorial letterhead:

Which is not just limited to the letter paper, but also can be used on cards and envelopes:

And other kinds of notecards:

Heraldry can also be used to create an armorial curriculum vitae, showing off not only your own coat of arms, but those of your employer, education, and other affiliations.

Business cards are an often-used place for a display of your heraldry:

But have you considered that you could also place your arms on your business card holder?

Come back next time for a few final ideas for using your coat of arms in your home office.

What Can I Do With My Coat of Arms? Part 9

Continuing our look at some of the things you can do, create, or have created for you in your home office, we find the following:

A little something on the wall behind your desk to remind visitors of who you are and how proud you are of your heritage:

Of course, you may not have the large-size desk that best goes with such a wall decoration, but you can also decorate a small lap desk with your arms:

Which could be accompanied with a wall clock similarly decorated, even utilizing the latest in laser carving:

And for on the desk, an armorial note pad holder (the example here is obviously an older one, given the arms of the Hanoverian Kings of England on its face, but you could certainly update it with your own):

Or a writing folder, which could even be designed to hold your smartphone or tablet:

And speaking of smartphones, did you know that you can get a protective case for a cell phone stamped with your coat of arms and/or crest?

Come back next time as we look at even more items often found in a home office that can display your coat of arms!

What Can I Do With My Coat of Arms? Part 8

Moving on, let's look at some of the things you can do with your coat of arms in your home office. Some of these will no doubt seem fairly obvious, but there will also be others that you may not have thought of before now.

First off, let's do a kind of overview, a desk top panorama as it were, of some of the ways that heraldry can be used there.

First we have this little desk set. How many different items do you notice here with the owner's coat of arms? (Please click on the image above, as well as the one below, to go to the full-sized photo to see all of these items in greater detail.)

Looking at this desk set and going from left to right:

While the glass inkwell could have a coat of arms etched onto it, this one does not. (But it could!)

The pen and pencil holder (which might also be just a drinking cup, but let's be real, it has a quill pen and a pencil in it) has a coat of on it.

The bookmark in the book is topped with a coat of arms.

The letter opener next to the book, and then, of course, the paperweight.

And finally, the picture frame with a coat of arms at the top.

This second photo, from Blasoni Nobiliari, an Italian firm which makes many of these and whom you can find on Facebook, has even more armorial items on the table top, though not necessarily strictly limited to the home office.

We have, again, trying to stay from left to right:

a business card holder; a seal matrix; an embossing seal; an embossed business card in an armorial card/placeholder; a small plate; two small paintings of the coat of arms; a paperweight; a shoehorn; a signet ring; a pin plate; a bookmark; a rubber stamp of the coat of arms; a letter opener; a ceramic box; and finally, two glasses with the coat of arm etched onto them.

And to finish up today's post, here are some more seal rings, seal matrices, and the seals they produce, just to give you an idea of some of the many choices that are available at a range of different prices out there.

Next time, some more armorial ideas for the home office!

What Can I Do With My Coat of Arms? Part 7

As I noted at the end of my last post, today we're going to look at something that is often used to display a family's heraldry, but one that can take a number of different forms, from fairly simple to extremely complex: the armorial family tree.

I do not doubt that you may have seen one or more armorial family trees in your researches, but have you seen enough to compare some of them, or to notice some of the many different forms they can take? I'm going to give you several examples here of varying complexity and date, without editorializing very much about any of them, just so that you can see some of the ways they can be done, and I hope that one or more of these will inspire you to look at creating one of your own.

So here we go, from the comparatively simple up to the more complex. You will note that many of these family trees are painted with foliage and even trunks sprouting out of the ground, making them literal painted "family" trees:

This next one is a modern example done by heraldic artist Marco Foppoli:

In addition to literal trees, these armorial family ancestors can also be confined within a circle (which has the advantage of perhaps taking up a little less wall space):

Or, if you want to go especially fancy, a mostly-circle done as a peacock's tail, complete with peacock.

Do you find yourself inspired by any of these examples to look at maybe doing one of your own? A nice heraldic family tree can be a great way of displaying your family's heraldry somewhere in your home.

What Can I Do With My Coat of Arms? Part 6

Today we're going to look at some of the much smaller items that can be used to display your coat of arms in your home.

One example might be an armorial clock on the wall:

Or an heraldic hat rack in the hall:

An armorial table runner can be quite nice:

Or, of course, any number of small knick-knacks or tchotchkes to be displayed atop that table runner (or on their own), for example, pin plates:

Or armorial decorative figures:

And boxes of various types, carved, or a coin box, or even a match safe:

If you have a regular (or even irregular) games night at your house, armorial playing tokens, the 19th Century version of the modern plastic poker chip, carved into varying shapes, some of them quite complex, have been popular:

Even playing cards have been used for a display of heraldry:

Or even something as mundane as a basic thermometer:

Or fireplace bellows can be used to display a coat of arms:

Next time, we'll look at something very specific but with a wide range of different formats that is often used in the home to display the family's heraldry. So stay tuned for even more ideas!

What Can I Do With My Coat of Arms? Part 5

So having looked at some of the bigger ways that you can use your coat of arms inside your home, we're going to continue today with a look at some of the smaller, less obvious things that you can put your heraldry on.

One form that has been popular for literally centuries, and which can still be done today, is the armorial portrait.

Notice that the second, modern one has only the crest rather than the coat of arms like the first one.

Armorial tiles, both small single tiles and larger panels made up of several individual tiles, and which can be worked into a backsplash in the kitchen or a tub or shower surround in the bathroom have been popular forms:

These may also be done as round (rather than square or rectangular) wall plaques:

And in a similar vein, decorative "wall pockets" which can hold flowers or other decorative items may also serve as a display of heraldry:

Or, of course, there is the ever-popular heraldic banner, hung against a wall or (if your ceilings are high enough) on a banner pole mounted perpendicularly to the wall:

And heraldic embroideries have always been in style:

And a next logical step, embroidered or painted or even just carved fireplace screens:

Next time, some even smaller examples of how you can use your coat of arms in your home.