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I found these arms of two bears countercharged. I don’t know anything about it other than this is labeled as the arms of a Hungarian city with the name Hans Burgkmair.
I’m curious to see what other examples of inventive coutercharging there are.
There must be something wrong with your image host, as I’m only seeing the filename, number of views and file size.
Same thing with the Finnish arms.
Although the image is absent, I dare to presume that the arms are personal, of an outstanding artist of that name. It is actually a kind of a field partition (although bears’ eyes turn the parts into charges anyhow), not unknown on the continent. There is also a partition "per lions" and it is a wee bit more frequent.
Charles Glass;77539 wrote:
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Love it. Thanks for posting. Its got this M.C. Escher, Yin vs. Yang feel to it. Very nice.
That really is interesting. I don’t think I’ve seen a coat of arms quite like it.
Very interesting, indeed. But there are some European arms with similar counter charges.
How would this be blazoned?
Claus K Berntsen;77540 wrote:
There must be something wrong with your image host, as I’m only seeing the filename, number of views and file size.
Same thing with the Finnish arms.
Try accessing the forum with the "correct" URL of www.americanheraldry.org
Well, look at that! Bookmarks updated!
Charles Glass;77539 wrote:
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I found these arms of two bears countercharged. I don’t know anything about it other than this is labeled as the arms of a Hungarian city with the name Hans Burgkmair.
I’m curious to see what other examples of inventive coutercharging there are.
Hans Burgkmair appears to be a person. Han Burgkmair the elder (1473-1531) was a German painter and printmaker.
kimon;77555 wrote:
How would this be blazoned?
AFAIK no stable English term has been introduced.
It should be "per bears’ heads" or "per bears’ snouts" but the traditional German term means just "per bears".
There are also similar "botanical" partitions, like this one (the arms of the municipality of Sayneinen, Finland):
Isn’t this just beautiful.
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The German Army’s Field Replacement Battalion 24.
This is truly creative heraldry!—or rather "was" since it is quite historical, not some modern innovation.
The only drawback I can see, is that this type of design depends heavily—overwhelmingly IMO—on the artistic talent of the designer / artist. The more traditional type of designs we usually see, with standard partition lines, ordinaries and/or charges, can be acceptably blazoned & rendered by anyone with a knowledge of blazon and a modicum of artistic talent. The results may not take one’s breath away the way one of the masters’ renditions often do, but they will at least be heraldically "correct" even if uninspiring.
Arms of the sort addressed in this thread, however, are unlikely to be even minimally acceptable or recognizable unless the artist has a deft touch—which most of us (with some exceptions) sadly do not. Thus I would be very reluctant to steer a newbie seeking to design arms in this direction unless he or she already has demonstrated better than average artistic sensibility & talent—which usually isn’t the case.
Ah well, if one’s reach does not exceed one’s grasp, what’s a heaven for?
Michael F. McCartney;77572 wrote:
Thus I would be very reluctant to steer a newbie seeking to design arms in this direction unless he or she already has demonstrated better than average artistic sensibility & talent—which usually isn’t the case.
So… damn the low standards? :wookie:
No, just realizing that one must learn to crawl & then walk before one can learn to run; & that even a died-in-the-wool small-r republican like me knows that not every high school kid running laps around the track, will ever qualify for the Boston marathon or the Olympics.
Not that it’s impossible—we like to believe that anyone can achieve what they set their minds on—but "anyone" is not "everyone."
Sorry I can’t argue this in Aristotelian or Taoist terms, but I’m typing this after hours in a motel in Medicine Hat, Alberta so this is as fancy as it gets!