No 24;83234 wrote:
The one on the right here gets my enthusiastic vote as the best so far.
As for the crest, I prefer crests that reflect the arms. With these I could see a compass rose Or rising from within a mural crown Or charged with pommes. (I am growing rather weary of animal crests.)
No 24;83234 wrote:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y249/loaba/Rat_Fess.png
As you can see, I did make changes to the fess design. I believe they’re what you’d call minor. Now we don’t have the bezant issue (I forget what vert orbs are called.) These are the two I’m considering and you’ll note the absence of red. Gules is officially tabled, whether I use a Pegasus or no.
The one on the right gets my vote for sure.
I agree with both posts above. My vote is the one on the right. I also really like the crest suggested above.
Dohrman Byers;83292 wrote:
The one on the right here gets my enthusiastic vote as the best so far.
As for the crest, I prefer crests that reflect the arms. With these I could see a compass rose Or rising from within a mural crown Or charged with pommes. (I am growing rather weary of animal crests.)
Fr. Byers - thank you for the suggestion. Pommes are green orbs, is that right? Per usual your command of heraldic elements exceeds my own, so I can’t envision what you’ve come up with. I shall Google it!
Google did indeed provide the answer, but Photobucket seems to be down. A Mural Crown is basically an "embattled" crown, the pommes are vert roundels as I had guessed and the rising compass star is self explanatory. I’ve made a rough image and it does look very nice indeed.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y249/loaba/Embattled_Fess_Crest.png
Yes, that’s what I had in mind but didn’t have time to draw or google.
No worries, Father. Thank you for taking the time to help me. Your crest idea is really appropriate and very good looking. I like it a lot.
That is a fine looking crest! But is it legal? I thought crown were only to be used for royalty? Or is that mostly a british thing?
I was under the impression that a mural crown has hitherto been used in a crest for municipal arms…
That being said, I really like the idea.
jcar;83316 wrote:
That is a fine looking crest! But is it legal? I thought crown were only to be used for royalty? Or is that mostly a british thing?
I’m sure it is legal, but I also think that cities use this kind of crown regularly. I think I’ve inadvertently designed a rather civic set of arms. lol
Brad Smith;83318 wrote:
I was under the impression that a mural crown has hitherto been used in a crest for municipal arms…
That being said, I really like the idea.
Municipal is just the word I was looking for, Brad. And by the way, I love your chief chequey. Every time I try and incorporate a chequey it just comes out bad. Well, okay, I mean I tried it with tenne so there is that…
I have both designs (Per Chevron Embattled and Fess Embattled) up on the wall and as I look at them, it occurs to me that I really like the addition of a sable charge. I think that third color just looks really good. I’m not so enamored with the rat mind you, I’ve toyed with the notion of a horse or some other animal. I just really like the additional color.
On the other side, the fess design looks solid and I can’t think of any particular way to improve it. The color swap worked out really well.
There’s nothing unacceptable about using a mural crown, but it’s true that it does tend to have civic connotations. The British kings of arms have often used it as a crest coronet for the arms military heroes/leaders.
A solution would be to use "On a wreath of the colors, upon a wall embattled Or pierced with three roundels Vert a compass rose of eight points also Or."
Joseph McMillan;83326 wrote:
The British kings of arms have often used it as a crest coronet for the arms military heroes/leaders.
I imagine that’s a nod to the Romans. Apparently they would honor the first man who breached a wall and successfully set his unit’s standard. The man was given a murel crown to wear. I see how it translates to a military honor today.
Joseph McMillan;83326 wrote:
A solution would be to use "On a wreath of the colors, upon a wall embattled Or pierced with three roundels Vert a compass rose of eight points also Or."
I’ll get to work on this straight away. In my minds eye, I can see it looking similar to the seal of the City of Dallas.
jcar;83316 wrote:
That is a fine looking crest! But is it legal? I thought crown were only to be used for royalty? Or is that mostly a british thing?
Take a look at AHS guidelines http://www.americanheraldry.org/pages/index.php?n=Guide.Guidelines, paragraphs 2.2.2.1 and 2.1.2.4.
Just in case you missed it in another thread, a recent Canadian grant featuring a rat in the crest:
<div class=“bbcode_center” >
http://archive.gg.ca/heraldry/pub-reg/ProjectPics/v552_20090028_arms_kucher.jpg
</div>
Haha nice. I knew there had to be others 
