Heraldry in the Wild, Redux

So there I was, just driving back to the gym on a rainy Monday morning, and ended up at a stop light herer in beautiful suburban Duncanville, Texas, behind a car with heraldry on its license plate.

I thought the arms looked somewhat familiar, but not having a whole lot of time to think it all through (the traffic lights at that intersection cycle through pretty quickly, so there's not much time to waste there), I quickly grabbed my phone and grabbed a photograph before the light changed.

Looking at it on my computer later, I felt almost certain that I had seen that coat of arms before.

The arms are, of course, those of the sorority Delta Sigma Theta.

Taking that identification and looking through my files (I keep a folder on my PC that contains pictures of heraldry that I have taken and identified over the years, making it much easier to see if indeed I have seen a particular coat of arms before, whether in the same or a different location), wouldn't you know? I had seen them before, on a different car, in a different (but nearby) city, Cedar Hill, Texas.

You can see what I had to say about that particular find in my post on this blog dated May 28, 2025, found here: http://blog.appletonstudios.com/2025/05/heraldry-in-wild.html

All in all, an interesting coincidence, that I would see the arms of this sorority on two different cars in two different cities on two different dates.

But I am most grateful that we now own phones that take pictures, so that when we're waiting at a stoplight and see a piece of heraldry, we can grab a shot of it before the light changes and we all have to drive off.

One Bank, Two Heraldic Logos

Well, technically, I suppose, it's not just "one bank", as one of the two was merged, with other banks, into the other.

But still ... they are both on the same building, so there's that.

Wandering about the busy streets of London, photographing about every piece of heraldry I could see, I came to Fleet Street, and a building with the following two armorial signs hanging from its facade.

This is the quasi-heraldic logo of Goslings Bank. If I were to offer to blazon this sign, it would turn out to be something like: Or three red squirrels sejant erect one and two, the lower two addorsed, each cracking a nut proper.

That is, squirrels doing what squirrels do:

Fitting symbols for a bank, I think, implying both thrift and saving up for the future.

Goslings Bank was a historical English private bank, located since at least 1743 at No. 19 Fleet Street, London, and identified to customers by a hanging signboard depicting three squirrels.

The bank originated in the business of Henry Pinckney, a goldsmith-banker who began trading in about 1650 at the sign of the Three Squirrels. The business passed through various hands until it came under the sole ownership of Thomas Ward, following the death of his partner in 1742. Benjamin Sharpe was a clerk at the Bank and was taken into partnership in 1794 and the name of the firm was changed to the Goslings and Sharpe. In 1896, Goslings and Sharpe became one of the twenty constituent banks that merged to form Barclay and Company.

The Goslings name is perpetuated by Barclays Bank as part of the group's history, and in several practical ways. The three squirrels sign is still maintained outside the Fleet Street branch at 19 Fleet Street, and the Goslings name is still printed on cheques issued at that branch, as it has been since the 1896 merger.

So, Goslings Bank having been merged into Barclays Bank, here we have the older version of the Barclays Bank logo, Argent an eagle displayed sable charged with three crowns argent.

We have seen the newer Barclays logo in our travels to York, which is basically An eagle displayed azure, sometimes on a black field, as in this photo.

Anyway, it's nice to see that the history of the building and its resident bank(s) is still preserved out here on the streets of London, England.

Just sayin'.

A Couple of Heraldic "Strays" in London

I swear, sometimes you just don't know what you're going to find someplace. No, really! Something unexpected, in an unexpected place.

For example, I ran across a foreign shield in, of all places, the Supreme Court Building in London.

I know that it was in the Supreme Court Building, because this is the photograph I took as we entered:

See? "The Supreme Court" big as life.

Anyway, down a hall in the interior, we came across this shield:

Now, I know what you're saying. You're thinking, "Wait a minute! Isn't that the arms of the kingdom of Norway?"

Why, yes. Yes, it is. And I have no doubt that there is a good reason for its placement here. But it is certainly not what I was expecting when I walked in through the doors!

You either, I suppose.

Anyway, a little later and a little ways down the street, up pops another, clearly non-English, coat of arms.

A scarf with the arms of the Football Club of Barcelona, Spain! (I love their motto: "More than a club.")

I have to admit, I have seen these arms more than once over the years, and never, having not traveled to Barcelona or even Spain yet, where I expect to find them. I've seen them on a couple of different vehicles here in the Dallas, Texas area (see the photo immediately below for one example), and now I've seen them in London, England.

Admittedly, though, they probably shouldn't have been as complete a surprise as they were here in London, as this was a street vendor selling, among other things, other football paraphernalia. For example:

The logo/heraldry of the Chelsea Football Club. Admittedly, this last makes more sense to me, since, unless my education has severely let me down, Chelsea is actually in England!

But for Norway and for the Football Club of Barcelona, I have to admit to some surprise at running across these heraldic "strays" so far away from their native home, and here in London, England.

Once Again, the Ubiquitous Empty Shield

No trip to Victoria, British Columbia, could be complete without at least mentioning the queen of Victoria's Inner Harbor, the historic luxury hotel, The Empress.

And, indeed, it is quite an imposing building.

But for all of the money spent in designing, creating, and building this impressive edifice, with a full range of possibilities for heraldic display, did they decide to go with a row of five plain, unadorned (except for the foliage surrounding them), and empty shields?

Once again, I find myself saddened by the missed opportunity for a display of actual heraldry that could have been used to add just that "little bit more" to an historic building.

What could have been added there? For starters, how about the arms of the Empress for whom the hotel, not to mention the city in which it resides, is named? Why not place the arms of Queen Victoria prominently here on the facade of the building?

Why not the arms of the Province of British Columbia? The arms of Canada? The personal arms of whoever was Lieutenant Governor at the time of the hotel's construction? Or those of one or more prominent Victoria personages?

But the most important question, at least to me, is: Why, oh why, create a motif that is so very clearly meant to invoke the aura and charm, the mystery and wonder, of heraldry, but include no actual heraldry in it?

Once again I found myself tempted to get a long ladder and a few quarts of paint, and "fix it." I didn't actually do that, but I sure wanted to!

Real Heraldry or Reel Heraldry?

Finding myself with a lot more "free" time in the evenings that I used to have, I set myself the goal of watching a bunch of old movies that I haven't seen before but which I feel like I ought to have seen.

Some of these old movies that I've been watching are more what I would call "general interest", like The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, or The Lady from Shanghai. I know, right? Shocking that I haven't seen them before now. But there you go.

Others, though, interest me as a historian, and as an academic herald, and as a long-time reviewer of movies set in the Renaissance, Middle Ages, or earlier. (Though I have retired from writing any new reviews of such movies I may run across, each month I publish a re-run of an earlier review. These can be found on my website at http://www.appletonstudios.com/movies2.htm)

Anyway, it was while watching one of these historical movies, 1936's Mary of Scotland, starring Katherine Hepburn in the title role, Frederic March, and Florence Eldridge as Queen Elizabeth, that I noticed the heraldically-decorated ceiling in one scene and snapped a screenshot:

Nice, right?

I already know that it’s a lot to ask, that a movie made back in the 1930s would use real heraldry instead of something just made up to add “ambience” to the movie set. Still, I thought I recognized at least a couple of the coats of arms in this ceiling, and so started doing some research.

I began by doing some research to find out where the movie was shot, because if it was shot on location, then perhaps I could find out where this ceiling is and obtain information about the arms here. As it turns out, though, this movie was filmed back in the days when location shots were deemed way to expensive, and Mary of Scotland was filmed on the RKO Studios lot in California.

Still, having recognized some of the arms shown here, I thought maybe someone had done some real research to make accurate coats of arms for this painted ceiling, so I pulled out a bunch of my Scottish heraldry books, most notably the facsimile rolls of arms produced by the Heraldry Society of Scotland, to see what I could find.

Alas, there are more shields here than I have been able to positively identify, or even provisionally identify, but still:

In the ceiling, beginning with the top row, the third shield from the left is the very well-known arms of Campbell, Earl of Argyll (Quarterly: 1 and 4, Gyronny argent and sable (Campbell); 2 and 3, Or a galley rigged and sail furled sable (Lordship of Lorne))

The fourth shield in that row is Graham, Earl of Montrose (Quarterly: 1 and 4, Or on a chief sable three escallops or (Graham); 2 and 3, Argent three roses gules (Earldom of Montrose))

In the second row, the fourth shield from the left is Hay, Lord Yester (Quarterly: 1 and 4, Sable three cinquefoils argent pierced (Fraser of Oliver Castle); 2 and 3, Gules two bars argent (Gifford of Yester), overall an inescutcheon Or three escutcheons azure (Hay of Locherworth))

In the third row from the top, the third shield from the left is either Bruce of Clackmannan or Bruce of Airth (Or a saltire and on a chief gules in dexter a mullet or)

And the fourth shield from the left in that row may be Elphinstone, Lord Elphinstone, but the tinctures of charges seems to be reversed (Argent a chevron sable between three boar’s heads couped gules)

Now, the fact that I could not definitively identify any of the other coats of arms in this movie backlot ceiling doesn't mean that they aren't real coats of arms. Indeed, there are a couple of them I feel like I have seen before. But are they Scottish arms? Or English? Or from somewhere else? I have no idea, and there is very little additional information to go on which could lead to further research. A color picture would be of immense assistance, but even though this is in grainy black and white, it's certainly possible to guess as some of the colors here. And, of course, the resolution of the image makes it hard to even determine what some of the charges are supposed to be. For example, the first shield in the second row; what are the charges around the chevron? Are they roses? Are they leopard's faces? Or are they some other, roughly roundish, items?

But I've only got so much "free" time, and at least some of that is now being taken up in watching old movies that I haven't seen yet but feel that I ought to have, so I am posting this picture from this movie with the few identifications that I have been able to make. These identifications help support my original feelings on seeing them that they are real coats of arms; I just don't know whose, or from whence they originate.

If you happen to recognize any of these shields (and you can always click on the screenshot above to see the larger and thus more detailed image), please feel free to put your identification into a comment below. The more information we can get about these arms, the better we can determine if they are all Real Heraldry, or Reel Heraldry.

Portraits and Arms of Lieutenant Governors of British Columbia, Part 2

Finishing off our review of the portraits and coats of arms of recent Lieutenant Governors of British Columbia in the hallway at Government House, Victoria, BC, we have the following:

Col. Iona Campagnolo, Lieutenant-Governor 2001-2007. Azure two pallets wavy, overall a double arched bridge Argent masoned Azure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iona_Campagnolo

Steven L. Point, Lieutenant-Governor 2007-2012. Azure a serpent with a head at each end in base respectant Argent its back enarched and set with fusils Sable, in chief five mullets in chevron Or. The double-headed serpent emblem was given to him by his father, who was from the Musqueam Indian Band. The five stars allude to the Five Star canoe club, which was named after a constellation of stars important to his people. In forming a chevron, they come to a point, making an allusion to his name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Point

Judith Guichon, Lieutenant-Governor 2012-2018. Vert a base enarched Or overall a bluebunch wheatgrass plant eradicated counterchanged. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Guichon

Janet Austin, Lieutenant-Governor 2018-2025. Azure on a chevron engrailed between three Latin crosses Or, three roses Gules barbed Vert seeded Or. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Austin

And this ends not only our look at the portraits and coats of arms of seven recent Lieutenant Governors, but also our review of the heraldry found and photographed in Government House, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Next time, who know where we'll be? Wherever it is, there will be heraldry to see!