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!
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