Sir W. H. St. John Hope

“ In the days when men devised arms for themselves these were characterized by a simplicity that held its own all through the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and well down into the fifteenth century. But following upon a privilege that had hitherto been exercised by the King as a mark of special honour, and in some rare cases even by nobles, the heralds then began to assign arms to such of the newly-rich who came to the front after the Wars of the Roses and were willing to pay for them. Henceforth the artistic aspect of heraldry entered upon a continuous decadent course. ”

“ It has already been shown that the arms of ladies, all through the medieval period, were borne in precisely the same way as their fathers' or their husbands', that is, upon a shield, lozenge, or roundel, and that the present inconvenient restriction to a lozenge did not come into use much before the middle of the sixteenth century, when heraldry and heraldic art were already on the down-grade. The present custom seems to be for the arms of married ladies to be borne upon shields, and of widows and spinsters upon lozenges. ”

“ Any student, however, who has become interested in a single shield, or in the look of the thing as seen in a collection of fine examples of heraldry such as are illustrated in this volume, should be able to master the main principles in an hour or two. The curious terms are only old-fashioned; they are used, so far as they are necessary, not of malice, but because it is of the essence of heraldry that everything shall be so strictly defined that a few words may represent a shield of arms as surely as a picture. ”

“ The heraldry of the seventeenth century is in general but a duller version of that of the later sixteenth century, with a tendency to become more commonplace as time goes on.
Under the Commonwealth every vestige of regality was ordered to be put down and done away; a very large number of representations of the royal arms were defaced and destroyed; and the leopards of England were for a time 'driven into the wilderness' along with the lion of Scotland. ”

“ The arms granted by Christopher Barker, Garter, in 1536 to the city of Gloucester afford another example. They consist of the sword of state of the city, with the sword-bearer's cap on the point, set upright on a gold pale, and flanked on either side by a silver horseshoe and a triad of horsenails on a green field; there is also (as in Wulcy's arms) a chief party gold and purple, with the silver boar's head of Richard III (who granted a charter to the city) between the halves of a Lancastrian red rose and of a Yorkist white rose, each dimidiated with a golden sun! ”

“ Definition of Heraldry; Modes of Display; Colours and Furs; Formation of Arms; Divisions of the Shield; Early Authorities: Seals, Monuments, Buildings, Wills and Inventories, Rolls of Arms.
To those who have given attention to the study of ancient heraldry few things are more surprising than the imperfect understanding of its true principles displayed in their works by so many artists and craftsmen of every degree. ”

“ Every one is familiar with the banner of the royal arms that betokens the presence of the King, and with our splendid national banner known as the Union Jack. The banner with the arms of the city that is flown above the Mansion House when the lord mayor is in residence is familiar to Londoners, and the citizens of Rochester are equally accustomed to see the banner of their city flying on Sundays and holidays from the great tower of their castle. Let a banner once be regarded in the light of a rectangular shield [Pg 220] and its fitness to contain armorial bearings immediately becomes apparent. ”

“ Designers have at times to deal with some matters which are almost common to all the arts, matters which they either know or do not know, and in which the genius they are apt to trust in goes for little apart from knowledge. They must learn lettering for inscriptions much like they once learnt the multiplication table, and they should learn the elements of heraldry in the same way. ”

“ This it has been difficult to do, as most of the books on heraldry, in seeking to be complete, so effectually muddle up the few important points with the vast number of things unimportant, or worse, that the art student is likely to give it up in despair. Many books on heraldry, which in itself is surely a gay thing, have been made to resemble grammars and dictionaries of a meaningless jargon. ”

“ Part of the gilt-latten effigy of Edward prince of Wales at Canterbury, showing labels over both the arms and the crest.
In modern heraldry the label is often drawn unduly wide, with short and ugly wedge-shaped pieces hanging from or sticking on to it, and sometimes it does not even extend to the sides of the shield. The result is that instead of its being a [Pg 102] comparatively unobtrusive addition to the arms the label becomes unduly conspicuous and void of all artistic effect. ”

“ These came into common use towards the end of the twelfth century, much at the same time that armory itself became a thing of life, and they were constantly being engraved for men, and even for women, who bore and used arms, and for corporate bodies entitled to have seals.
Moreover, since every seal was produced under the direction of its owner and continually used by him, the heraldry displayed on seals has a personal interest of the greatest value, as showing not only what arms the owner bore, but how they were intended to be seen. ”

“ The present custom of using various types of helm facing different ways to denote grades of rank is comparatively recent as well as often inconvenient, and utterly subversive of the proper method of displaying a crest, which should invariably face the same way as its wearer. This fact is amply illustrated by the early stall-plates at Windsor, but the modern crested helms surmounting the stalls there were for a long time the scoff of students of heraldry owing to the absurd manner in which the crests were set athwart the fronting helms. ”

“ Shield of Bryen impaling Bures, from a brass in Acton church, Suffolk.
When a man is a member of any Order, such as the Garter or the Bath, only his own arms should be encircled by the insignia of the Order. Exceptions to this rule can of course be found, but it is otherwise a general one that ought strictly to be followed. Bishops are entitled to bear their personal arms only impaled with those of their bishopstool or cathedral church, and the same rule applies to deans, heads of colleges, and regius professors (like those at Cambridge) who have official arms. ”

“ Shields of Irregular Outline and Surface; The Filling of a Shield; Apparent versus Absolute Uniformity; Modern Rules as to Proportion; The Use and Abuse of Quartering: its Origin and Growth; Differencing of Arms; The Scutcheon of Ulster; Diapering.
From these preliminary remarks we may pass to the practical consideration of the principles of heraldic art.
And first as to shields and their treatment.
The form of a shield is in itself entirely arbitrary and void of meaning. ”

“ Should the helm face any special way according to the degree of the bearer thereof? What are the ordinary relative proportions which helm and crest should bear to the shield? May a shield be set aslant as well as upright? Should a torse be drawn with a curved or a straight line? Is it necessary to represent the engraved dots and lines indicative of the tinctures? What are supporters to stand upon? Are they to plant their feet on a ribbon or scroll, or on a flowering mound, or what? May arms entitled to have supporters be represented without them? ”

“ The unfortunate mayors, mayoresses, and sheriffs are practically at the mercy of ignorant and inartistic tradesmen for the [Pg 317] designing and making of the collars they are called upon to wear officially, but that is no reason why people with more enlightened ideas should not invent, design, and wear collars or chains that are beautiful in themselves. The examples already quoted and the many illustrations of others that are accessible will show what comely ornaments the old heraldic collars were, and many a lady would look well in a collar to whom a necklace is most unbecoming. ”

“ Workmanship when separated by too wide a gulf from fresh thought—that is, from design—inevitably decays, and, on the other hand, ornamentation, divorced from workmanship, is necessarily unreal, and quickly falls into affectation. ”

“ Even when the same charge is repeated many times, like the fleurs-de-lis in the old arms [Pg 80] of France, any possible chance of mechanical monotony is avoided by a trifling variation in the shape of each, as in the shield of the King of France in the early series at Westminster (fig. 34) .
Another fact is that in the old work lines and curves are hardly ever quite true, but drawn by hand instead of with pen or compasses. The modern artist, on the contrary, usually draws his lines and curves with mechanical precision ”

“ The employment of a creature to hold up a banner of arms was already no novelty in the fifteenth century, and examples have been noted above of those on the tomb of Lewis lord Bourchier (ob. 1431) and on the seal of Margaret lady Hungerford (c. 1460) ; to which may be added the banner-bearing lion on the seal (c. 1442) of Henry Percy, eldest son of Henry second earl of Northumberland. The conversion therefore of the sitting beast into a vane-holder came about quite naturally. ”

“ The monuments of the dead continue as before to be adorned with heraldry, but in a different way, and for the beautiful simple arms and devices of the medieval memorial began to be substituted the concentrated shield of the family quarterings, with crest and mantled helm, and such supporters as the College of Arms allowed or approved. ”

“ During the twelfth century shields were more or less kite-shaped, like those that were actually used, but in the thirteenth century they began to be shorter and straighter across the top. Good examples of this type may be found on seals. In the aisles behind the quire of Westminster abbey church, the beautiful shields in the spandrels of the wall arcade, of a date not later than 1259, retain their rounded upper corners. ”

“ It is the custom now for ladies of rank to wear their coronets only at coronations, and to display them on their note-paper, their spoons and forks, and on the panels of their carriages and motor-cars. ”

“ In the blending of handwork and thought in such arts as we propose to deal with, happy careers may be found as far removed from the dreary routine of hack labour as from the terrible uncertainty of academic art. ”

“ In many ancient heraldic shields, especially in painted glass, and to a lesser extent in carved work and on seals, the plain uncharged surfaces of the field or ordinaries are relieved by covering them with the purely ornamental decoration called diapering (figs. 45, 48) . An early instance in relief occurs on the shield of the effigy in the Templars' church in London usually ascribed to Geoffrey de Magnavilla; and another delicately sculptured example of later date [Pg 106] is to be seen on the Vere effigy in Hatfield Broadoak church in Essex (fig. 47) . ”

“ Lionel duke of Clarence seems to have borne at one time a gold label with a red cross on each piece for Ulster, and at another a silver label charged on each piece with a red quarter for Clare; John of Gaunt duke of Lancaster bore an ermine label for his earldom of Richmond (pl. II) ; and Edmund duke of York a silver label with three red roundels on each piece (pl. XXI B) . The rolls of arms furnish instances of labels of all colours, and with pieces charged with various devices, such as leopards, eagles, castles, martlets, etc. ”

“ Sir John Alen's collar, somewhat enlarged, and with a modern 'jewel' as a pendant, is still worn by the lord mayor of London, and is the only medieval collar of SS that has survived.
After the reign of King Henry VIII the wearing of the collar of SS gradually became restricted to judges and other officials, and has so survived to the present day, when it is still worn in England by the lord chief justice, the kings-of-arms, heralds, and pursuivants, and by the serjeants-at-arms. ”

“ It is only fair to say that the fault appears to be not altogether that of the artist or craftsman, but should rather be ascribed to the disregard of the principles and usages of true armory that pervades so much of the printed literature to which men naturally turn for information. ”

“ Should it be thought that undue stress has been laid upon the pre-Tudor heraldry, to the comparative exclusion of that of later times, it may be pointed out that until the principles of the earlier heraldry have been grasped and appreciated, it is impossible to get rid of the cast-iron uniformity and stupid rules that bound the heraldry of to-day, and tend to strangle all attempts to raise it to a higher level. ”

“ In 1380 Edmund Mortimer earl of [Pg 326] March leaves 'our great bed of black satin embroidered with white lions (the badge of the house of March) and gold roses with scutcheons of the arms of Mortimer and Ulster'; and in 1385 Joan princess of Wales leaves to King Richard her son 'my new bed of red velvet embroidered with ostrich feathers and leopards' heads of gold with branches and leaves issuing from their mouths.'
In 1389 William Pakington archdeacon of Canterbury leaves 'my halling of red with a shield of the King's arms in the midst and with mine own arms in the corners' ”

“ True Supporters: their Introduction; Supporters of Crested Helms; Pairs of Supporters; Dissimilar Supporters; The use of Supporters by Ladies; Other ways of supporting Shields.
The misuse of crests to which reference has been made unfortunately does not stand alone, for modern artists are quite as much at fault with regard to the proper treatment of supporters.
There can be little doubt that these charming adjuncts to heraldic compositions originated with the seal engravers, in their desire to fill up the vacant space in a round seal between the shield and its surrounding margin. ”

“ Since heraldry is a survival of what was once a living thing, it is clear that if modern work is to look well, animals and birds ought to be drawn in a more or less conventional manner (figs. 148, 149) . Some, such as elephants, dogs, falcons, etc. may be drawn [Pg 255] almost directly from nature; but others, especially lions, if so represented, would manifestly be unfit to consort with the leopards, the wivers, the griffins, the two-headed eagles, and other delightful creatures of the early heralds which they borrowed from the bestiaries. ”