The Brawner Building, Washington DC

 
ESmith
 
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ESmith
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02 June 2007 15:26
 

I saw this coat of arms near the door of the Brawner Building in Washington DC, near Farragut Square.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1229/526557550_782bf50bd7.jpg

 

There was no explanation or plaque of any kind, it rather caught me by surprise.  The building is a model of modern concrete, glass and steel architecture and doesn’t strike me as all that historical.  Does anyone know what this rather attractive touch of heraldry is doing in the middle of the business district of the Federal City?

 
Donnchadh
 
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Donnchadh
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02 June 2007 17:48
 

i dont know…but cool none the less. smile great find.

 
Arthur Radburn
 
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Arthur Radburn
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03 June 2007 08:41
 

Apparently they’re the arms borne by members of the Brawner family (I gather the building belongs to a family-owned company).  According to a newsletter on the Brawner family website:

The Brawner Coat of Arms (there may be more than one) is pictured below. When in color, it is silver, with three narrow black horizontal bars. There is a jagged black dragon’s head located on a gold upper corner. Above the shield and helmet is another dragon’s head. The Coat of Arms is officially documented in Burke’s General Armory.  The Coat of Arms shown here was apparently drawn by a heraldic artist from information recorded in ancient heraldic archives. Whatever all of this means, we have a Coat of Arms to call our very own, and here it is ...

 

http://www.geocities.com/heraldrysa/brawner.gif

 

(http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/6614/collections/bbltn23.pdf)

 

Who else thinks this has "bucket shop" written all over it?

 
ESmith
 
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ESmith
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03 June 2007 08:51
 

Arthur Radburn;45763 wrote:

Who else thinks this has "bucket shop" written all over it?


Bucket shop perpahs… but if it is Burke’s it must have some validity.

 
Joseph McMillan
 
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Joseph McMillan
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03 June 2007 09:32
 

ESmith;45764 wrote:

Bucket shop perpahs… but if it is Burke’s it must have some validity.


Some validity?  Of course—this is what bucket shops do.  They don’t (normally) just make things up; they sell pirated arms.  They look up Brawner or some similar name in Burke, or Rietstap, or Siebmacher, and sell whatever they find to everyone named Brawner…or, as often as not, Browner, Brauner, Bruner, Brown, Broun, and who knows what not.

 

Even if it’s in Burke’s, that doesn’t make it the arms of this particular Brawner family.

 

I might add that proponents of the theory that no arms are valid in England without the blessing of the College of Arms would reject the basic statement that "if it’s in Burke’s it must have some validity."  Arthur Fox-Davies made a career out of cleaning the "bogus arms" out of early editions of Burke’s.

 

(Burke himself, as Ulster King of Arms, seems to have accepted the contrary theory that arms may legitimately be borne by long and continuous use; I believe he said in the early 19th century that he would confirm Irish arms that could be proven to have been used by a family for 60 years.  There’s quite a literature in the English popular press in the late 19th/early 20th century debating this issue.)

 

Either way, however, for old arms to belong to someone, he has to prove descent from the original bearer, not just match up his name.  This is absolutely fundamental.

 
Andrew J Vidal
 
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Andrew J Vidal
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03 June 2007 10:24
 

There’s also a company here in Pottsville that has a coat of arms in their business sign.  I’ve often thought of contacting them and asking about them.  But, as they’re one of the most powerful families in the area I don’t think it would be in my best interest to challenge them.  Especially if I plan on owning any type of land in the near or not so near future.

I have my suspicions about the arms being from a bucket shop, only because that they are very simple and that they leads me to believe they are very very old.

 
Patrick Williams
 
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03 June 2007 11:01
 

Well ... here it is: a link to the very first result (a bucket shop) in a google search for Brawner coat of arms-

http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp.fc/qx/brawner-family-crest.htm

 

We can’t assume right off the top that the Brawner building folks usurped these arms. But neither can we assume that they have hereditary right to them. I like to look at it this way: whether they have right to them or not, at least there’s a little bit of reasonably attractive heraldry in an otherwise concrete and steel building. And they avoided using supporters, crowns or other nobiliary additaments.

 
Patrick Williams
 
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Patrick Williams
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03 June 2007 11:19
 

Indeed, the Brawner building and the Brawner Co. are family owned.

http://www.brawner-company.com/#

 

From another page on the site:

 

"Henry Brawner and Mary Brock Brawner, the first generation of Brawners in the New World, came to America in 1634 and settled in Port Tobacco, Maryland where they acquired 300 acres of property. Two hundred years later, Henry Brawner’s lineal descendants ventured into real estate by developing his land into more profitable uses, including construction of the

historical landmark Brawner Hotel in Port Tobacco."

 

So, along with the information from Art Radburn above (and assuming that the Brawner family website is the same family that owns Brawner Co.), I’d think the likelihood of usurpation to be increased. That, of course, does not mean that they don’t have a claim to the arms.

 
Linusboarder
 
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03 June 2007 11:57
 

The thing about bucketshop arms is that even If i had a direct male hereditary link to the arms used by a bucketshop, it would still bother me because I know that a bunch of "Shisler" will usurp these arms due to a bucketshop using them. It would make them unoriginal and not unique to me and my family, so I would probably try to assume new ones anyways.

Of course with a name like Shisler, it’s not much of a concern (well that and I am pretty sure i don’t have a direct male link to the "Shisler" Bucketshop arms anyways. And I have already assumed different arms.)

 
ESmith
 
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ESmith
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04 June 2007 17:39
 

I still wonder though… considering that the Brawner folks has been around awhile, and the bearings are listed in Burkes… perhaps these have some level of legitimacy…