Are there many online ordinaries of arms? I have a friend who would like to adopt a coat of arms and we want to ensure her rather simple design is not already in use.
In case anyone knows off the top of their head, she’s aiming for ARMS: Gules a squirrel Argent holding a violin Or. CREST: A squirrel Gules holding a violin Or.
I didn’t find any matches searching the online armorials at the Canadian Heraldic Authority or US Heraldic Registry.
I assume (?) that the "default" position for a squirrel is sejeant?
Nice simple design. FWIW I would be quite surprised if this infringes on any existing arms; but I’ve been surprised before!
Just a violin? No bow? My suspension of disbelief has limits, you know.
Jeremy Keith Hammond;100745 wrote:
In case anyone knows off the top of their head, she’s aiming for ARMS: Gules a squirrel Argent holding a violin Or. CREST: A squirrel Gules holding a violin Or.
Symbolizing the golden harmony to be sought among gray and red squirrels the world over.
...or if the squirrels are more like people, signifying the field of blood that too often is the unintended consequence of good intentions gone bad…
RE: the bow—I would have assumed that it would be understood as part of the default for a violin unless otherwise stated, assuming the violin & bow are the same color.
Or, following the principle that a gentleman is one who can play the bagpipes but doesn’t, and the general practice of depicting an heraldic animal in the most noble way, maybe the default is no bow?
Well, hares are notoriously fond of playing the bagpipes, and, as we know, "hare" means a gentleman in German, although the Germans persist in spelling it wrong.
http://karlwilcox.com/parker/wp-content/uploads/parker/m033a.png
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5311/5894375448_e5e008f9b1.jpg
http://24.media.tumblr.com/d8bbfaf8b7b3f4e668091bb427edd32c/tumblr_meyqp0UGV01rqxd5ko1_1280.jpg
Kenneth Mansfield;100755 wrote:
Just a violin? No bow? My suspension of disbelief has limits, you know.
I don’t know. He could be holding it like Blutarsky held the guitar.
http://yeslekjones.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/bluto-guitar.jpg?w=584
Jeremy Keith Hammond;100745 wrote:
Are there many online ordinaries of arms?
All fun aside, there are Papworth’s Ordinary (British, mostly but not exclusively arms that appear in Burke’s General Armory) and Balfour Paul’s Ordinary (of arms matriculated in Lyon Register up to 1900 or thereabouts). Both are available from Google Books and archive.org.
You can also just google the blazon in various languages and see what turns up.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj206/bluetrin72/week and weekend/GoodMorningSquirrel2520Violin2520by.gif
—Guy
Armed squirrel
Goostrey: Argent a chevron between three squirrels sejant Gules.
David Pope;101858 wrote:
Goostrey: Argent a chevron between three squirrels sejant Gules.
These arms are variously attributed to Blackenden, Goostrey, Eaton and Kinsey. The Goostreys originally held the arms and they held the manors of Goostrey and Blackenden (hence the attribution to Blackenden) but the eventual destination of these arms illustrates the fact that in olden times armorial bearings quite often went with an estate rather than a surname. The Goostreys, whose arms these originally were, are extinct, the line ending with two sisters (armorial heiresses). One, Alice Goostrey, married into the Eaton family (Thomas Eaton). Thomas had previously used the arms "Quarterly, Argent and Gules a cross patonce counterchanged in the first quarter a mullet of the second" but, presumably because the Goostrey family was better known, he abandoned those arms and began to use those of his wife’s family; Argent a Chevron between three Squirrels sejant Gules. Meanwhile, the other Goostrey heiress, Agnes, married Robert Kinsey and he also immediately began to use the Goostrey arms - somewhat confusing at the time I would imagine. Eventually, the Eaton line also became extinct and any inquiry today to the College of Arms as to what family the arms Argent a Chevron between three Squirrels sejant Gules belongs to will illicit the response that they are the arms of Kinsey (of Blackenden).
