This is a great design!
I’d love to be able to take credit for more of the design, but my contributions were limited to requiring the number 4, and using counterchanging. Although Sandy and I went back and forth with a couple of designs the final arms are very similar to his original suggestion (which used an ascending dove in place of the poppy). I’m not a fan of the dove as a symbol of peace, and after some discussions we settled the poppy.
The crest was all Sandy. All I said was I didn’t want a Phoenix. I was quite pleased with what he came up with. And as much as I liked the idea for the crest, the picture in my head wasn’t nearly as good as Terry’s rendering.
Dale Challener Roe;61501 wrote:
Arms:
Per Pale Sanguine and Argent, a Poppy ensigned in Chief by four Mullets in Fess enarched all counterchanged
A quibble about the blazon: The description "in Chief four Mullets in Fess enarched" is rather confusing. Reading it, I wonder whether the mullets are in chief or in fess. To me, in fess says that the mullets are in the position of a fess, i.e. arranged horizontally (enarched) across the middle of the shield.
Would it not be better to say: "Per pale Sanguine and Argent a Poppy below four Mullets in chief enarched counterchanged"?
I believe "in Fess" simply means in a horizontal line, i.e. in the direction of the Fess, as opposed where the Fess lies on the shield.
That’s true, but as the stars are not "in fess" (in a horizontal line), it is, as Fr. Byers says, confusing. How about "a poppy beneath an arc of four stars [palewise] counterchanged"? "Palewise" to be included only if there’s a feeling that "an arc" suggests each star being tilted to have one point directly away from the poppy.
The stars are not in fess. They are in Fess enarched.
If the blazoning is too difficult to grasp: Per pale Sanguine and Argent, a Poppy ensigned [seeded] by an arch of four Mullets all counterchanged.
A fantastic concept. Well done to all concerned. I’ll put up with the use of Sanguine because the good points of the design well outweigh its use.
Like a number of people I’m not convinced by the blazon. In particular the use of only four stars makes getting the curve needed for enarched difficult - they appear to me to be in chevron, though admittedly a shallow one. I appreciate that the number can’t be changed.
I’m a great believer that the best heraldry is where the blazon can be accurately represented by any half competent artist and an accurate blazon can be derived from a competent representation. Despite the depiction being more than competent I can’t get enarched from it without being told.
The following is awkward but complete and is how I would blazon it from the depiction.
Per pale Sanguine and Argent a poppy seeded of the field and in chief four stars those in dexter chief in bend sinister those in sinister chief in bend all counterchanged
James