Why Is It ...

... that all of the really cool heraldic stuff that I see costs so much?

I ran across a this watch the other day:

It is the CVSTOS Challenge Pride of Colombia Automatic Limited Edition watch.

And as you can see in this detail, it has on its face the arms of the South American nation of Colombia.

(And here's a representation of the arms from Heraldry of the World (http://www.ngw.nl/) for comparison.)

Now, I don't really need a watch.  I do have one, but it's a pocket watch that I only wear very rarely with one of my three-piece suits, and it needs its battery replaced, so it just sits in a drawer at home.  I also have a self-winding watch that I inherited from my father, which also sits in that same drawer.  Because, as I said, I don't really need a watch. I have a perfectly good smartphone that has calendar, watch, timer, and alarm clock apps on it. And because it's also a telephone, I have it with me all the time. So if I need to know what time it is, I whip out my phone and find out what time it is.

But this watch is really, really cool!  And heraldic!

But it's ridiculously expensive. It is marked down significantly, on sale for a mere US$16,999 (down from US$25,000). And I just can't see spending that much money on a watch that I don't really need, no matter how heraldic it is.

If you, on the other hand, have that much spare cash lying around and could use a good heraldic watch, you can find the CVSTOS Challenge Pride of Colombia Automatic Limited Edition watch on-line at: https://www.touchofmodern.com/sales/high-end-watches-61791f10-62cc-477c-82dc-eb77b49c2e78/cvstos-challenge-pride-of-colombia-automatic-limited-edition-577colo-gw91-c-2015-unworn

Say What?

Frans Rekem posted the following drawing of the arms of Rivola (Bergamo) on the Facebook page of the International Heraldry Society along with the question, "How is this working, please? Sneeze forbidden!"

A few hours later, he posted another image in which he had fixed the problem.

Heraldry. You gotta love it!

I Would Totally Buy This for Myself

Under the heading of things that I could not avoid purchasing for myself is the following, which I ran across on the internet the other day.

This picture of a chair she ran across in Lexington, South Carolina, was posted by Suzi Thurman.

And were I to see it in person, how could I possibly say no to acquiring it, right?

Come to think of it, I could see tracking down a few yards of that fabric to make some nice heraldic curtains!

Heraldry Making the News

I realize that I'm a little late in getting to this, but ...

There have been several articles about the bestowal in February by The Heraldry Society (England) of its Corporate Heraldry Award to the Worcester City Council.

The bi-annual Corporate Heraldry Award began a few years ago as a comparatively low-key thing, but seems to have recently become a prestigious thing to receive, and there's been a fair bit of news about it this year. The Award is made to cities and other corporate bodies who have, and more importantly, use a coat arms to strengthen their identities.

And apparently, Worcester has been doing this in spades.

Here's one rendition of their current arms:

And in other places about the city, you can find the two coats of arms which were combined to create the current one.

All in all, it's great to see heraldry used like this, and it's also great that The Heraldry Society bestows this Award on people who do it.

You can find illustrated articles about this bestowal to Worcester on-line at the following web pages:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-35606663

http://worcesterobserver.co.uk/news/council-awarded-heraldry-honour-use-coat-arms-city/

http://worcesterobserver.co.uk/news/badge-honour-council-heraldry/

Nice (Heraldic) Gift!

I swear, if this were the kind of gift that was passed out to bridesmaids at most weddings, I think I'd be willing to put on one of those poufy dresses myself and show up.

The fine folks over at My Family Silver have put up a picture and the history behind a really nice armorial brooch that was a gift for a bridesmaid at the marriage of John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, to Gwendolin Fitzalan-Howard on 16 April 1872.

Their technical description calls it:

A gold brooch in Gothic style mounted with an enamelled armorial shield surmounted by a pearl set coronet within a circlet of cushion-shaped rubies and diamonds.

The Glasgow Herald, covering the wedding, said of it:

Each youthful lady wore as a memento of the auspicious event a valuable gold locket, the centre being in the shape of a shield or escutcheon, on which were enamelled in colours proper the heraldic arms of the Bute and Norfolk families impaled. Round the lower part of the shield, from the top of the dexter chief to that of the sinister, was a band of beautiful rubies and small diamonds, the loop set with the same precious stones. The ornament was surmounted with a Marquis’s coronet, the leaves being formed in diamonds alternating with pearls.

I would just call it a really great gift, and one that I might be willing to wear a bridesmaid's dress for a couple of hours to receive.

Or, I suppose, I could just save up my money and buy it.

You can learn more about this great piece of historical heraldry on the My Family Silver blog at http://www.myfamilysilver.com/blog/index.php/2015/12/bejewelled-armorial-wedding-brooch-for-the-marquess-of-bute/#.VtCx3P4UWic, or (if you have a lot more available cash than I do) you can find it for sale at http://www.myfamilysilver.com/mp/item/22024/a-rare-and-documented-victorian-gold-enamel-diamond-and-ruby-armorial-brooch-for-the-third-marquess-and-marchioness-of-bute

An Appropriate Use of Heraldry

Someone recently posted the following picture of Facebook, where an agreement had been signed between the United States of America and the Republic of Cuba.

The first thing I thought was, "Well, it's about time that we started doing something about the embargo, seeing as how it hasn't really done anything for either country in the last sixty years."

The second thing I thought was, "Wow, what a great use of the official heraldry of each nation."

And here are the arms of the U.S. and Cuba as found on Wikipedia:

And ... They've Done Another One

Apparently, this tee shirt crew is going through all of Tim Burton's movies and creating arms-like logos for them.

The most recent one is for his 1999 Sleepy Hollow.

It's still not heraldry, but it's becoming an interesting collection of wearable quasi-heraldic art, especially for Tim Burton movie fans. I'm looking forward to seeing if they come up with any others.

I Swear, Part Two

Well, they did another one.

The non-coat of arms that I spoke of in my post before last was based on Tim Burton's animated movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas.

This one is based on his movie Beetlejuice.

It's still not heraldry.

Fun With Heraldry

I ran across a post last week (February 10, 2016) over on The Brothers Brick, a blog about all the wild and wonderful stuff people build using LEGOs. This particular post had an heraldic theme; one of their contributors, "kofi," created a display of the arms of all nine Bundesländer, or States, of Austria.

And to give you an idea of how close he came to each of them, here are depictions of the states' arms from the website Heraldry of the World (http://www.ngw.nl/):

Burgenland

Kärnten

Niederösterreich

Oberösterreich

Salzburg

Steiermark

Tirol

Vorarlberg

Wien

Like I said: Fun With Heraldry!

I Swear ...

... people will put just about anything on a shield shape and believe that somehow that makes it "heraldry."

I ran across this on one of the daily tee shirt websites late last week:

Yeah, it's on a shield shape. No, it isn't heraldry.