As I am going to have a scented marker drawing, Night Over America, in the "Sputnik" exhibition (honouring the first artificial satellite) at the Yoshkar-Ola Fine Arts Museum there in October, I thought I’d direct people to a page about the arms thereof: http://heraldry.hobby.ru/frame/e.mari.html . As with much "communist heraldry," there may be some confusion about the partition line of the chief (in the "new blazon"). I certainly have a problem with it…
I have a much bigger issue with the name of the town written in chief, but it seems to be their style. The division line brings to mind the newer ones in use and being developed in Scandinavia. I don’t know how to blazon many of them, either.
I think that they would have been better served by reverting to their historical arms that were granted to them by Empress Ekaterina II (the Great).
I dunno. Those older arms are pretty darned ugly, if you ask me.
Patrick Williams wrote:
I dunno. Those older arms are pretty darned ugly, if you ask me.
May be a better photograph of the Imperial Russian granted arms would help, I found this image in the book Zemelnyi Gerby Rossii XII-XIX vv. (City Arms of Russia 12th-19th Centuries) by N. N. Speransov; published in 1974: http://img239.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00183mf0.jpg
Since the city of Tsarevokokshaisk (now called by its ethnic name Yoshkar-Ola) is no longer associated with the old Kazan Khanate, may be the arms of Kazan should be dropped from the upper half of the arms and the present day arms of Tsarevokokshaisk could simply consist of the lower half of the traditional arms representing the city, Azure, an elk stantant Argent.
Patrick Williams wrote:
I have a much bigger issue with the name of the town written in chief, but it seems to be their style.
Me too. This is certainly bad taste, as is the inclusion of letters in general, with a few charming exceptions such as the arms of Trost (my personal viewpoint). However, the division line is somewhat attractive and interesting (though I don’t know how to blazon it), and I think the design problem is rather an artistic representation problem rather than with the design itself (outside the name of the town).
David Pritchard wrote:
May be a better photograph of the Imperial Russian granted arms would help, I found this image in the book Zemelnyi Gerby Rossii XII-XIX vv. (City Arms of Russia 12th-19th Centuries) by N. N. Speransov; published in 1974: http://img239.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00183mf0.jpg
Since the city of Tsarevokokshaisk (now called by its ethnic name Yoshkar-Ola) is no longer associated with the old Kazan Khanate, may be the arms of Kazan should be dropped from the upper half of the arms and the present day arms of Tsarevokokshaisk could simply consist of the lower half of the traditional arms representing the city, Azure, an elk stantant Argent.
Thank you for this source. I personally like the overall effect; there’s no need to remove the arms in chief simply because they represent a historic relationship that no longer exists—the historical reference should be preserved and they should revert to the old arms. Much of heraldry represents this sort of thing.
