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.