Coat of arms

“ There can be very little doubt that arms themselves are older than the fact of the surcoat or the term "coat of arms." The entire heraldic or armorial decoration which any one is entitled to bear may consist of many things. It must as a minimum consist of a shield of arms, for whilst there are many coats of arms in existence, and many still rightly in use at the present day, to which no crest belongs, a crest in this country cannot lawfully exist without its complementary coat of arms. ”

“ COATS OF ARMS SIGNET RINGS—ARMORIAL BEARINGS—ESCUTCHEONS—CRESTS—BADGES
Before we deal with coverings for the hand, it will not be amiss to consider something else which is worn on the fingers. Strictly speaking, of course, rings should be reckoned as ornaments, but signet rings very often bear upon them the crest or coat of arms of their wearer, and thus we have still carried on the person at the present day, a small and inconspicuous vestige of what were once most important articles of costume. ”

“ A coat of arms must consist of at least one thing, to wit, the "field." This is equivalent in ordinary words to the colour of the ground of the shield. A great many writers have asserted that every coat of arms must consist of at least the field, and a charge, though most have mentioned as a solitary exception the arms of Brittany, which were simply "ermine." ”

“ The coat of arms is just a map of the property. Now, with regard to the arms, as far as is known there has not been at any time the slightest deviation by the family of the Lords Stourton from the coat quoted and illustrated. ”

“ The differences of Arms by adding small and minute figures as of Crescents, Mullets, Martlets, etc. is neither antient nor could be so: For 300 years since every man of note and family carried in the wars his shield carved and coloured, and his armour painted suitable, and his coat of arms to cover his armour embroidered of the same ”

“ Now it is doubtful whether an ordinary has ever been drawn containing the third part of the field by rigid measurement, except in the solitary instance of the pale, when it is drawn "per fess counterchanged," for the obvious purpose of dividing the shield into six equal portions, a practice which has been lately pursued very extensively owing to the ease with which, by its adoption, a new coat of arms can be designed bearing a distinct resemblance to one formerly in use without infringing the rights of the latter. ”

“ My own opinion is that many are not, and that it is a mistake to so consider them; the true explanation undoubtedly in some—and outside the Royal Family probably in most—being that they are new coats of arms adopted as new coats of arms, doubtless bearing relation to the old family coat, but sufficiently distinguished therefrom to rank as new arms, and were never intended to be taken as, and never were bastardised examples of formerly existing coats. ”

“ All the figures denoting differences are also used as perfect charges on the shield; but their size and situation will sufficiently determine whether the figure is used as a perfect coat of arms, or is introduced as a difference or dimunition.
Sisters have no differences in their coats of arms. They are permitted to bear the arms of their father, as the eldest son does after his father's decease. ”

“ I have made many a three-seamed sack coat larger by enlarging the undersleeve and by well stretching the coat under the arm, and then piecing the lining down to the hips. A coat which is too small in the armholes and which is cut forward is usually ruined, because cutting the armholes forward will be at the expense of the width of the breast, but if a wedge is put in under the arm, either by stretching the bottom of the armhole or by the help of outlets, then the coat will be large enough in the arms and remain wide enough at the chest. ”

“ In wearing the leather waistcoat it need not show. The coat can be buttoned over it.
There is a shooting coat, I believe the invention of the late Mr. Cholmondely Pennell, which has a waistcoat of thick material to wear over, instead of under, a thin coat. This keeps the body warm whilst the arms are light and free.
Boots or shoes with corrugated rubber soles or nailed boots should be worn if the ground is heavy, wet, or slippery.
As nailed or rubber soled boots cannot be worn when in formal dress it is best to make sure of your foothold when wearing ordinary boots or shoes. ”

“ Examples of shields surmounted by helmets and crests with quaint and flowing mantling are to be seen in all kinds of art work.
Various stitches and methods specially lend themselves to the expression of heraldry. Those which, like cross stitch, impose a certain simplicity, are very good. Another suitable medium is applied work, of which an illustration can be seen on page 95. Gold and silver thread are very useful here, and look exceptionally rich when couched in the XIIIth century method. Fig. 147 is an embroidered coat of arms dated the first half of the XIVth century. ”

“ Most handbooks refer to a certain rule which is supposed to exist for the differencing of a coat to denote illegitimacy when the coat is that of the mother and not the father, the supposed method being to depict the arms under a surcoat, the result being much the same as if the whole of the arms appeared in exaggerated flaunches, the remainder of the shield being left vacant except for the tincture of the surcoat. ”

“ The white service uniform consists of a white cap or white helmet; a white coat with shoulder straps of the same design as the white service coat worn by the United States naval officer except that there is a patch pocket with flap and button on each side below the waist. When under arms the sword is worn suspended by slings from a belt beneath the coat and the gold and black sash belt is worn outside of the coat. ”

“ The armhole must be larger than the body all around, and no coat feels agreeable or looks well if the armhole is tight-fitting on the top of the arm or at the shoulder seam.
The shoulders should fit at the neck, but not tight. They should hang and balance themselves between the arm and the neck, where neither the movement of the neck nor that of the arms interferes with the coat. At the arm, the shoulders of a well-fitting coat should be loose, and as long as the sleeve fits so that it will not drag the armhole out of place such looseness will remain there, forming a square shoulder. ”

“ No soldier, who has been reduced to his coatee in a campaign, but must have sighed after his original smock-frock, or any other outer covering that had at least some pretensions to being useful. Since, however, the idea of defending the body of the foot-soldier by steel or leather is given up, the two things requisite in a serviceable coat are warmth and convenience. ”

“ The dress coat for all other officers is a single-breasted sack coat of dark blue cloth, with a standing collar, closed in front by buttons or hooks concealed by a fly, having a vertical opening on each side at the hip six inches high, the collar, front edges, bottom edge of the coat and the vertical side openings being trimmed with lustrous black mohair braid one and one-half inches wide. ”

“ The officers’ overcoat is single-breasted reaching to about three inches below the knees, closed with a single row of bronze buttons down the center of the front, buttoning to the neck, with a wide falling collar, and a large pocket on each side. Like the enlisted men’s overcoat it is fitted to have the fronts of the skirt button back to permit freedom of the legs in marching. The same stripes indicating rank are worn upon the sleeves as upon the service coat. ”

“ She was close in her husband's arms; she clung to him; whatever of strangeness and slowness and insularity she might find in him, none of that mattered so long as she could slip her hands beneath his coat, run her fingers over the warm smoothness of the satin back of his waistcoat, seem almost to creep into his body, find in him strength, find in the courage and kindness of her man a shelter from the perplexing world. ”

“ These buttons and button-holes left their marks in the coats of a century later in the form of gold lacing on either side of the slit of the tails.
In about the year 1700, it began to be the fashion to gather in the vest or coat at the waist, and it seems that this was first done by two buttons near the hips being buttoned to loops rather nearer to the edge of the coat, and situated at about the level of the waist. Our soldiers much in the same manner now make a waist in their loose overcoats, by buttoning a short strap to two buttons, placed a considerable distance apart on the back. ”

“ The cut of a surcoat, the hilt of a sword, the lines of a breastplate, will tell us, with some degree of accuracy, when a man lived and to what nation he belonged; and, at the same time, in the later years, we shall find that the suit of plate not only proclaims the individuality of the wearer, but also bears the signature and individuality of the maker; a combination of interests which few works of handicraft can offer us.
From the eleventh to the end of the fourteenth century we have but a few scattered examples of actual defensive armour and arms ”

“ They have their coats fit properly up to the neck, not with lapels turned back exposing the chest.
It always amuses me to see a man with a big fur coat turned far back on the chest so as to show the rabbit skin, dyed to represent sable. ”

“ The two upper buttons in the case of uniforms are now used to support a belt, and at first sight it looks as if they were originally intended for this purpose. Their adoption in other cases might then be put down as a survival from a time when civilians carried swords. Unfortunately for this theory, it can be shown that the sword-belt was not necessarily worn outside the coat (see Figures 18 and 19) .
We must therefore look round for further evidence, [27] and we find that those coats which bear the pair of buttons, have a slit up the middle which gives rise to the skirts or tails. ”

“ They wear sandals, the military petticoat or philibeg, a baldric crossing one shoulder, a girdle, to which is attached a short sword or dagger, and when engaged in warlike operations, having the upper part of the body covered with a defensive coat, either of leather or armour, and wearing above the whole a tippet like the cape of a great coat. ”

“ It must stand up, no matter if a turn-down part is cut on or if it stands alone, as on military or clergymen’s coats. A well fitting military or clergyman’s coat requires for its standing collar nothing but a straight piece of cloth, and sewed on straight. ”

“ The word coat, meaning a garment for men for covering the upper part of the body, has been in use for centuries; but of very changeable and confusing usage, for it also constantly meant petticoat. The garment itself was a puzzle, for many years; most bewildering of all the attire which was worn by the first colonists was the elusive, coatlike over-garment called in shipping-lists, tailors’ orders, household inventories, and other legal and domestic records a doublet, a jerkin, a jacket, a cassock, a paltock, a coat, a horseman’s coat, an upper-coat, and a buff-coat. ”

“ The plain black coat fitting to perfection, but light and perfectly easy, the snowy white waistcoat, the shirt, of extraordinary fineness, as pure as driven snow, the plain wristband turned back over the cuff, the beautifully-made gloves and boots, and withal that air of ease and grace which, if not a part of the dress, except metaphorically, gives value to the whole, at once distinguished that young man from all the rest, and pointed him out as one of the marked in the capital of nations. ”

“ White undress uniform.—The white undress coat, white trousers, white cap, white shoes, white gloves and sword with tan leather sword belt and slings. The white undress coat is made of white duck or drill after the same style and design as the blue undress coat and bears the same rank, corps and staff devices. ”

“ The universal colour in full dress and undress coats is a dark, flat blue, faintly tinged with purple. Generals, cavalry and infantry (except Bersaglieri) wear blue-grey trousers and silver ornaments; staff officers, artillery and engineers dark blue trousers and gold ornaments.
The coat, whether tunic or frock, has a stand and fall collar, on the corners of which invariably figures a five-pointed silver or white star. The cuffs are slightly pointed, except for cavalry. The full dress head-dress is a low cloth shako, the undress throughout a képi. Generals wear only the képi. ”

“ I had been desired to appear in full uniform—epaulettes, cocked hat, sword, and what is suggestively called "brass-bound" coat; swallow-tailed, with a high collar stiffened with lining and gold lace, set off by trousers with a like broad stripe of lace, not inaptly characterized by some humorist as "railroad" trousers. The theory of these last, I believe, is that so much decoration on hat and collar, if not balanced by an equivalent amount below, is top-heavy in visual effect, if not on personal stability. ”

“ Coat.—Single-breasted, straight-front sack, with square corners, skeleton made, of bluish-gray flannel, or a light-weight bluish-gray worsted or serge, and terminating two-thirds distance from top of hipbone to knee, with lapels (medium roll) made to button over the breast; three pockets outside, with flaps, one on each side and one on left breast. Coat to be bound with black mohair piping, 1/16 inch projection, and five buttons down front, four buttons to button, and one at top, under lapel of coat. ”

“ Your thin man should always close the thorax button of his coat, and the last two at his waistband, leaving the intermediate open, to give what he needs—more breadth of chest. Your stout man, who has almost always a nice arm and hand, should have his coat sleeve a perfect fit from the elbow to the wrist, buttoning there tightly—allowing a nice strip of a white linen wristband below it. ”

“ Shoes, boots, or stockings, are rarely met with, and the coats, mostly too tight and too short, make the oddest appearance imaginable; many of their wearers can scarcely move their arms, and are forced to stretch them out like the sails of a windmill, while their elbows, curious to see the world, peep through slits in the seams. ”