Mail Order Heraldry, Part 3

Continuing our review of the most recent Design Toscano catalog, we find a stained glass panel with the arms of France Modern (http://www.designtoscano.com/product/code/HD35387.do), Azure three fleurs-de-lis or.

On another page, they offer a “White Eagle Stained Glass Window” panel, which they state is “[b]ased upon the historic coat of arms of Poland” (http://www.designtoscano.com/product/code/HD765474.do).

For myself, I generally dislike armorial products which are “based on” something else almost as much as I dislike movies which are “based on” a book or story.  I find that, in many cases, the product often bears a minimal relationship to the item it is “based on.”  Here, though, except for the fact that the eagle’s head is facing the wrong way (it should be looking to the viewer’s left, not its own left) it does match the real arms of Poland pretty well.

Ah, if only I had more windows here at home in which to hang more heraldic stained glass.

Mail Order Heraldry, Part 2

Continuing our perusal of the most recent Design Toscano catalog, we find a pair of shields of real heraldry, though one is misnamed.

These are the France and “William of Normandy” Wall Shields (http://www.designtoscano.com/product/code/CL947033.do).  The second is, of course, misidentified, because there was more than one Duke of Normandy, and not all of those Dukes were named William.  So that shield is not truly the arms of only “William of Normandy,” but rather of “Normandy.” Still, if I thought I had a good place to display them in my home, I'd certainly be tempted to get them, no matter what they are named.

Another shield of nearly real arms appearing in this catalog is one that I have already discussed almost a year ago on this blog in my post of February 25, 2011 (http://blog.appletonstudios.com/2011/02/heraldry-in-catalogue.html).  This design is called “Queen Victoria’s Royal Coat of Arms Shield Sculpture,” but the arms are not entirely accurate, as noted in that earlier post.

This Day in (Heraldic) History

From the website of the Texas State Historical Association (http://www.tshaonline.org/day-by-day/30945):

January 25, 1839

On this day in 1839, the Republic of Texas Congress adopted the Texas coat of arms -- a white star of five points on an azure ground encircled by olive and live oak branches. The national seal bore these arms encircled by the words Republic of Texas. In 1845 the designation was altered from Republic to State.

This photograph of the carved Texas coat of arms in the Life Science Library at the University of Texas in Austin can be found on-line (along with a few other coats of arms from Texas history) at: http://www.utexas.edu/tours/mainbuilding/interior/library/coatofarms.html

Mail Order Heraldry, Part 1

Having in the past purchased a couple of neckties with coats of arms on them, I continue to receive regular catalogs from the mail order firm Design Toscano.  (The ties that I have bought from them can be found at http://www.designtoscano.com/product/code/SL122.do and http://www.designtoscano.com/product/code/AL105.do.  This is not necessarily a plug for the firm; others have found at least one of the ties available less expensively elsewhere. But they are really nice ties, and I regularly receive good comments when I wear them.)

But I took the time to read through their most recent catalog, and thought I would share a few of the heraldic items in it.  Some are real heraldry; some are clearly fictional.

One of the clearly fictional pieces is the “Count Dracula’s Coat of Arms” Wall Plaque (http://www.designtoscano.com/product/code/CL6100.do).

I’d love to know the “historic drawings” from which they say this “family crest of Vlad the Impaler” was allegedly taken, since I’ve seen nothing like it in all of my heraldic researches.

Another coat of arms that is not so fictional, but for whom I have not found a positive attribution, is this stained glass panel (http://www.designtoscano.com/product/code/HD27677.do).

A quick review of Papworth’s Ordinary of British Armorials finds several similar coats of arms belonging to different branches of the Mill and Milne families, but none seem to match exactly.  The closest are Mill, Bonniton, Or a cross moline between three mullets azure and Milne, Edinburgh, Or a lozenge-pierced cross moline between three mullets azure within a bordure nebuly sable.  The first lacks the piercing of the cross which appears in the panel; the second has a bordure which does not appear in the arms on the panel.  Other variants change either the shape of the piercing (square-pierced and oval-pierced) or the color or line of division of the bordure (e.g., invected).

I'll show you some of the other heraldry to be found in their catalog over the next few posts.

Playing Card Heraldry

In a post dated December 28, 2011 over at the blog Flyer Design Goodness, the author has photos of a number of well-designed playing cards and playing card boxes.

One of the brands, Monarchs by the U.S. Playing Card Company, really struck me because of the heraldic themes on both the boxes

and the backs of the playing cards themselves.

All of the designs for the various brands are elegantly done, but these two particularly jumped out for me because of their heraldic elements.

You can see the entire post, and the other playing card designs, at http://flyergoodness.blogspot.com/2011/12/elegant-graphic-design-of-theory11.html

And you can buy packs of any of the cards shown in the Flyer Design Goodness blog post, as well as a number of others, including this one with an heraldic design on the box,

from Theory11 at http://www.theory11.com/playingcards/

Heraldry in the News!

I'm jumping onto the bandwagon just a little tardily, I realize.  Many of you have probably already read about the big news coming out of Scotland, that Donald Trump is finally receiving a new coat of arms that he can use on his new golf course that he's been trying very hard to build up near Aberdeen.  (For which project he's been receiving a lot of opposition from many of the locals.)  Here's the "coat of arms" that he was using for it ...

... until the Court of the Lord Lyon explained to him the realities of trying to us an unregistered heraldic logo in a nation with an heraldic authority, and that, one which could haul him into court for using a self-assumed coat of arms.  Not to mention their ability to deface, remove, chisel down, etc. any such non-authorized arms.

So "The Donald" went through the proper channels and applied for a grant of arms from Lord Lyon King of Arms, and it's about to be unveiled.

As you can see, there's a crest of a lion rampant (for Scotland), three chevronels, a "double-sided" eagle (they mean two-headed) holding golf balls in its talons, and stars (for the United States of America).  The motto is Numquam concedere, "never give up."  (I have to admit, the design is not nearly as bad as the descriptions in some of the news stories had led me to believe.)

Stories about the new coat of arms can be found at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2087966/Donald-Trump-wins-right-use-family-crest-Scottish-heralds-advertise-golf-course.html and http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2012/01/18/donald-trump-comes-up-with-official-coat-of-arms-to-go-with-750m-golf-resort-86908-23705556/ and http://www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2012/01/17/donald-trump-at-last-awarded-the-scottish-coat-of-arms/ There are, no doubt, more stories about this on the websites of any number of newspapers.

Additionally, folks have been making proposals for what the new coat of arms perhaps should look like.  Here's a couple of examples.

The motto for this one is Latin for "You're fired."

And the motto here is Latin for "Keep your hair on."

Mutual Admiration

Our friend, Xavi Garcia, who has his own blog, Dibujo Heráldico, that I have talked about before here (and which has a link in the left-hand column under Other Blogs of Heraldic Interest), has recently posted about this blog, and included his rendition of my personal coat of arms (one version of which I showed you in my post of December 31, 2011).  Señor Garcia's drawing of my arms is presented here, with his kind permission.

It's always of interest to seen someone's interpretation of a coat of arms.  Indeed, I know of several individuals who commission drawings of their arms from as many different heraldic artists as they can, just to see the different treatments.  I can't quite afford to go quite that far yet, but as I said, it's always interesting to see how different artists individualize a coat of arms in their personal style.

Heraldry in the News!

There’s an interesting article over at ClickOnWales by Trevor Fishlock entitled How heraldry prospers in today’s Wales. The subtitle says that he “reports on the extraordinary survival of an invented tradition,” and is accompanied by a number of quotes from and a picture of Tom Lloyd, Wales Herald Extraordinary.

It’s really a very nice article, explaining a bit of Welsh history, both ancient and modern, and heraldry, and how they intersect. It’s well worth a read, and I recommend it to you. You can find it on-line at http://www.clickonwales.org/2011/12/how-heraldry-prospers-in-today%e2%80%99s-wales/

(If you do go there to read the article, you may notice that the photograph of Wales Herald Extraordinary there is reversed.  At first I thought he was wearing a tabard with the Scottish quarterings of the Royal arms, but then realized that all of the lions were facing sinister.  Not to mention the fact that the medals worn by the men behind him appeared to be on the right breast instead of the left.)

One of my favorite lines from the article is: “A coat of arms is unique. Tom Lloyd agrees that it is a bit of showing-off, but believes strongly that it is there to be enjoyed as a part of family history.” I don’t think I could have said it better myself.

An On-Line Heraldry Drawing Program

I ran across a website the other day that I thought was worth sharing with you.  It contains the Drawshield suite of programs by Karl L. Wilcox.  The suite includes: some Heraldry Flashcards; a Heraldry Quiz (it shows you a shield, and then you have to choose the correct blazon (from three choices); a Heraldry Image of the Day; a page that lets you build a design from elements in the program; a page that will draw a shield from a blazon; and a Showcase of arms drawn with the program.

Like most such software, it has its quirks.  For example, the Heraldry Quiz not only uses stains and such tinctures as carnation for major elements (as opposed to, say, the face and hands of a person), but the grammar of the blazon is non-standard.  As one example, a shield with a carnation field strewn with green stars was blazoned as mullety carnation and vert.  Another shield blazoned bleu celeste as "celestial."

Also, again, like most such software, it also has its limitations.  I typed in the blazon of my own coat of arms, Argent two chevronels azure between three apples gules slipped and leaved vert (which should look something like this),

and it drew the following:

The "Error Reported" link gave me the following:

Internal Errors:
No placement for charge.
Blazon Problems:
Nothing to go between
Not understood: three apples gules slipped and leaved proper.

I got the same emblazon when simply going with "between three apples gules."  I have to assume that the charges database does not have apples, since changing "apples gules" to "lions gules" put three red lions rampant around the chevronels.

Still, for all its shortcomings, it's a website that's worth knowing about.  You can find The Drawshield Suite on-line at http://www.karlwilcox.com/drawshield/

Can Coats of Arms Function as Trademarks?

I personally have always thought so, especially since I’ve seen heraldry being used as trademarks enough times, on things from bottles of wine to entire restaurants.

But in an on-line article dated December 16, 2011, English attorney Paul Bicknell gives us a more definitive (and relatively short) answer, at least from the view of English law.  It’s a nice, short, easy to read and understand little article, though he could have used another proofreader. “Court o the Lord Lyn” should, of course, be Court of the Lord Lyon.

And, of course, it has no application on this side of the Atlantic; the United States is less restrictive about the use of armorial ensigns as trademarks, and Canada has its own laws and heraldic authority to consult with.

If you’d like to go read what Mr. Bicknell has to say, his article can be found at http://www.lawdit.co.uk/reading_room/room/view_article.asp?name=../articles/13535-coats-of-arms-trade-marks.htm