i find it very ugly, in the truest sense of the word, that people would attack a heraldic artist, especially of the likes of Andy, like this article does. while i’ve never had him emblazon my arms i have found Andy to be friendly, supportive and even instructive when i practiced heraldic emblazonments. i simply do not understand the obnoxious fixation these people have with trying to ‘bring him down’ as it were.
for the record, Andy is a real person, is a premier heraldic artist—a true Master of the craft, does run a real heraldic business and as i’ve heard form many a person, including many here, runs it with integrity and professionalism. i’m asking all serious heraldists here to take a moment and read this garbage and then contact the ‘news’ blog about Andy with your personal interactions with him (they also asked this of others on FB on Andy’s page there). unbelievable.
Donnchadh;87943 wrote:
i find it very ugly, in the truest sense of the word, that people would attack a heraldic artist, especially of the likes of Andy, like this article does. while i’ve never had him emblazon my arms i have found Andy to be friendly, supportive and even instructive when i practiced heraldic emblazonments. i simply do not understand the obnoxious fixation these people have with trying to ‘bring him down’ as it were.
for the record, Andy is a real person, is a premier heraldic artist—a true Master of the craft, does run a real heraldic business and as i’ve heard form many a person, including many here, runs it with integrity and professionalism. i’m asking all serious heraldists here to take a moment and read this garbage and then contact the ‘news’ blog about Andy with your personal interactions with him (they also asked this of others on FB on Andy’s page there). unbelievable.
Is the article entitled "BEWARE OF ARMS SCAM AT THE JAMIESON GALLERY" on the page you provided a link to what you are talking about? I’m not familiar with this "British View" magazine and probably would never have heard about it were it not for your having brought it to attention.
It doesn’t sound like an attack so much as a misunderstanding. If Mr Jamieson did not answer the telephone calls and he is only communicating through this Ce Howard person noted in the article, then it is understandable why someone would think that Mr Jamieson didn’t exist—because Mr Jamieson isn’t making himself known.
Furthermore, most people would be cautious of anything that required down payment and then a wait of nine or more months to even begin discussing work. So you can not fault someone for being suspicious of the down payment requirement and then the additional nine months wait before discussing work on Mr Jamieson’s site. Especially since there is no contract involved when sending the money, thus meaning no legal recourse to recoup the money if the commission fell through as it could be kept as a "consideration fee".
Really, if a contractor you never met before told you to pay up front and he would be back in nine months to talk about what you were expecting for your money, would you not be cautious? So, the writer is just going with the guy feeling anyone else would have, and posted his concerns.
xanderliptak;87947 wrote:
It doesn’t sound like an attack so much as a misunderstanding. If Mr Jamieson did not answer the telephone calls and he is only communicating through this Ce Howard person noted in the article, then it is understandable why someone would think that Mr Jamieson didn’t exist—because Mr Jamieson isn’t making himself known.
Furthermore, most people would be cautious of anything that required down payment and then a wait of nine or more months to even begin discussing work. So you can not fault someone for being suspicious of the down payment requirement and then the additional nine months wait before discussing work on Mr Jamieson’s site. Especially since there is no contract involved when sending the money, thus meaning no legal recourse to recoup the money if the commission fell through as it could be kept as a "consideration fee".
Really, if a contractor you never met before told you to pay up front and he would be back in nine months to talk about what you were expecting for your money, would you not be cautious? So, the writer is just going with the guy feeling anyone else would have, and posted his concerns.
Questions of business practices aside, it is doubtful that the British View Magazine has much of a following in terms of readers; particularly among those interested in having a painting of their coat of arms done. The website doesn’t look very polished and the content is decidedly low-brow.
xanderliptak;87947 wrote:
It doesn’t sound like an attack so much as a misunderstanding. If Mr Jamieson did not answer the telephone calls and he is only communicating through this Ce Howard person noted in the article, then it is understandable why someone would think that Mr Jamieson didn’t exist—because Mr Jamieson isn’t making himself known.
Ce is Andy’s fiance. Further, she runs/manages his online gallery. She handles such questions just as anyone’s office manager would—i deal with people like Ce all the time when i work with galleries. this is common place. if i wanted a tommy hilfigger (sp?) outfit i would not dial up tommy hilfigger (sp?) corporate offices and demand to speak to him personally. that’s utter nonsense.
Quote:
Furthermore, most people would be cautious of anything that required down payment and then a wait of nine or more months to even begin discussing work. So you can not fault someone for being suspicious of the down payment requirement and then the additional nine months wait before discussing work on Mr Jamieson’s site. Especially since there is no contract involved when sending the money, thus meaning no legal recourse to recoup the money if the commission fell through as it could be kept as a "consideration fee".
not so, again. i have dealt with another internationally known heraldic artist and while it didn’t take 9 months, his queue was large and it’s been more than 3 1/2 months and, yes, i did have to pay up front. my questions for other such premier heraldic artists it is the same. a couple take half up front, but most i’ve talked with ask for the full payment up front. so, again, this is common. in my own dealings with galleries who specialize in specific artists this is also common place.
Quote:
Really, if a contractor you never met before told you to pay up front and he would be back in nine months to talk about what you were expecting for your money, would you not be cautious? So, the writer is just going with the guy feeling anyone else would have, and posted his concerns.
apples and oranges, Alexander. we all do this very thing every dang time we go through the local drive through at our fast food joints!!! you pay BEFORE you get. if it’s good enough for McDonald’s then it ought to be good enough for Andy’s work. and, frankly, if you don’t like the arrangement simply don’t purchase his goods. no one is holding a gun to people’s heads saying they have to only use Andy’s services. give me a break.
if this person were serious he would’ve researched the whole thing including the COA where Andy is well known and respected…or his clients….which are not hard to find! in fact the secretary for the premier heraldic artist society, Mr. Arkenstall, has said he was contacted by the farce of an investigator and gave him all the answers he needed to this question refuting all the rubbish being laid about about Andy not being real, etc and yet not once was that info included in this warning blog. in colorado we have a name for such people, but i can’t use that word here on this forum. the fact is he isn’t interested in facts, rather, in libel and calumny. it would be easy to "speculate" on the origin of this poppycock, but the forum rules here prevent me from naming that/those person/persons. it is a very ugly situation and i am glad he’s not taking this laying down anymore. he shoulda gone on the attack long ago imo. in the end when all the chips fall we will all be able to see the gutter-snipes for who they are. thank God for that!
Caledonian;87948 wrote:
Questions of business practices aside, it is doubtful that the British View Magazine has much of a following in terms of readers; particularly among those interested in having a painting of their coat of arms done. The website doesn’t look very polished and the content is decidedly low-brow.
IMHO it doesn’t matter how big or small the Magazine is , the important is how true allegations are. The article is not written from the position of an ‘attacker’ but simply addressing some sort of doubts about the company the potential client intended to deal with ,relying only on all provided by the website contacts and details.The fact ,that the note is anonymous and published more than two months ago leaves little space for an immediate reaction .Mr Jamieson’s website was under construction for the past year changing it’s content and appearance ...including information about his personal life and achievements.The British View Magazine covers small, local community of Wiltshire in South West England , which is considered Mr Jamieson’s closest neighbourhood to Dorset and Somerset counties where the artist resides.In this case any untrue and baseless accusations can have very damaging impact and consequences.
Please, note , that in the article there is an info linking Mr Jamieson with another great heraldic artist -Anthony Wood ,who as far as I know is living somewhere in the same part of England . Both of them are members of the Society of the Heraldic Arts and with Andrew being elected a Chairman of the Society it will be very easy to dismiss any doubts about the legitimate activity of Mr Jamieson’s company and heraldic society.
I’m looking forward to it personally , because I was trying to contact Jamieson Gallery in a written form by e-mail sent from the ‘Contact’ page of his website ...and I never got any answer. In fact, I was publicly accused of cyberstalking Mr Jamieson and his fiance’ Ce Howard 
On other occasion I received a surprising answer from Mr Jamieson’s private assistant Lady Claire Talbot threatening me that any attempt to contact the artist will be reported to the authorities in UK and Egypt! And only this is ridiculous ! If the simple request of an anonymous to the artist client like me ,to commision The Master to paint my COA and order a custom designed tapestry amounts to the crime , then I don’t know what to think anymore ..:confused:
Donnchadh;87943 wrote:
for the record, Andy is a real person, is a premier heraldic artist—a true Master of the craft, does run a real heraldic business and as i’ve heard form many a person, including many here, runs it with integrity and professionalism. i’m asking all serious heraldists here to take a moment and read this garbage and then contact the ‘news’ blog about Andy with your personal interactions with him (they also asked this of others on FB on Andy’s page there). unbelievable.
Well said , Dennis.
The link will be probably accessible only to the facebooking users of this Forum , but maybe Kathy McClurg being an administrator of this Official Facebook page knows what happened to the content regarding this article. It’s seems to be removed along with other fan’s comments ...
Last minute update and revelation from the Official Facebook Page of Heraldic Artist, Baron de Carcassonne ( Andrew Stewart Jamieson) :
‘Very soon Egypt and Germany ip’s will be blocked from the Jamieson Gallery. If you are a client or friend within these countries please don’t worry. You’ll receive a special link to a log in page that will give you access to duplicate pages of the site that will not contain the country block code. Thank you Lord * for your help and support.’
It’s crystal clear from where the attack was launched ! Of course , Egypt and Germany ... Thank you my Lord !
Aquilo;87957 wrote:
Last minute update and revelation from the Official Facebook Page of Heraldic Artist, Baron de Carcassonne ( Andrew Stewart Jamieson) :
‘Very soon Egypt and Germany ip’s will be blocked from the Jamieson Gallery. If you are a client or friend within these countries please don’t worry. You’ll receive a special link to a log in page that will give you access to duplicate pages of the site that will not contain the country block code. Thank you Lord * for your help and support.’
It’s crystal clear from where the attack was launched ! Of course , Egypt and Germany ... Thank you my Lord !
Baron de Carcassonne ????
I have the greatest of respect for Mr. Jamieson’s work, it is practically second to none but I have just noticed that he is referring to himself as the Baron de Carcassonne and have some concerns. I subscribe to the views on French noble titles set out so clearly by François R. Velde; in summary, they can’t be purchased. http://www.heraldica.org/topics/france/noblesse.htm
May I suggest that, regardless of his tremendous talent as a heraldic artist, Mr. Jamieson’s customer relations problems are his own and not ours? I don’t understand why it should be incumbent upon "serious heraldists" to rally to his defense in this matter. If someone is a satisfied customer, then by all means he or she should feel free to say so, but the idea that people who have had no professional dealings with a business should volunteer to endorse the way it operates is, to put it bluntly, bizarre.
Given what Anna and Martin tell us in their most recent posts, perhaps we ought not only to close this discussion but also ask the moderators to consider removing the thread from our forum entirely.
Since my access to the website could be shortly denied I took a chance to read once again revised artist’s biography ...don’t know why described as ‘bibliography ’ ...after all maybe it has a deeper meaning .
Just a narrow passage from the Official website:
http://www.jamiesongallery.com/bibliography.html
‘In 2006 he was created a Baron in recognition of his services to a European Royal House. He is King of Arms to the Order of the Oak of Navarre, a medieval Order of Chivalry whose headquarters are now in California, a position previously held by the heraldic Master Anthony Wood until his retirement. ‘
I was researching this Summer network for reliable information about ASJamieson and Anthony Wood in order to write the articles that would meet Wikipedia’s notability criteria but I never and nowhere came across this information about both having anything to do with the Order of the Oak of Navarre ,which in opinion of some is a self-styled Chivalry order that have nothing to do with its original medieval version.
The similar opinion was voiced about the Military Order of the Collar of St. Agatha of Paterno and this one is listed among Mr Jamieson’s affiliations on his Official Facebook Page .
I wonder if there is anybody who could say something about these chivalry orders and what is their up to date status? The only person I can think of is George F. Lucki but he wasn’t active here recently ...anybody else ? Maybe someone from California ?
Joe, there’s much more to the story than what is here—including the identity of people here (at least two of them without their knowledge) being used via internet in order to perpetrate these harassments! that is part of why Andy asked for support on FB and why i asked for it here—this is, after all, listed as a place to post about heraldic artists.
if it’s a problem then remove it. however, being a man who is serious about researching things as you are i find it equally bizarre that you would find this not worthwhile of being posted in a heraldic MB given all that has gone on with Andy being under attack and those attacks being done via internet with the identities of some of the people here—-some of whom i know and once told Andy i did not think was actually them and told them that at least two of those people were real people i dealt with in real life with my own art and could verify that unless they had separate living spaces in different states with different addresses and had different voices on the phone that they indeed were not the same person and that their names were being used as a fake name by the attacker(s)!
so, i apologize to the forum that i have posted this here. i assumed, i know the phrase and it’s apparently made an a$$ out of me in the eyes of some, that as a heraldry community we would want to know about the stalking, harassment and otherwise ill treatment of a heraldic artist given what all has gone on. my apologies and feel free to remove it.
i’m so let down with that comment that i feel like saying ‘at least i know what is thought of heraldry artists around here…we care about their art, of course, but not about the artist’ but i know that is as beneath you as it is me. i’ll just chalk it up to…whatever…i simply don’t know. so be it.
p.s. Joe this was not about a problem with him and his customers…you really shoulda researched this more before you made that comment. so be it.
Martin Goldstraw;87958 wrote:
Baron de Carcassonne ????
I have the greatest of respect for Mr. Jamieson’s work, it is practically second to none but I have just noticed that he is referring to himself as the Baron de Carcassonne and have some concerns. I subscribe to the views on French noble titles set out so clearly by François R. Velde; in summary, they can’t be purchased. http://www.heraldica.org/topics/france/noblesse.htm
I couldn’t agree more and having the greatest of respect for Mr Jamieson’s work I would like to continue this thread on a high level within this very prestigious and reputable circle of society members. It’s possible , but it’s only my opinion , that we are looking at the very serious in fact case seriously damaging Mr Jamieson’s professional and personal image.
Donnchadh;87961 wrote:
Joe, there’s much more to the story than what is here—including the identity of people here (at least two of them without their knowledge) being used via internet in order to perpetrate these harassments! that is part of why Andy asked for support on FB and why i asked for it here—this is, after all, listed as a place to post about heraldic artists.
I’m sorry, but I don’t consider people complaining about a business’s lack of responsiveness to inquiries to constitute "stalking." How are we to know that any real harassment is going on, other than that he tells us so? What exact form does this harassment take? Have the "stalkers" hacked his FB page and added the "Baron de Carcasonne" nonsense? Is that the issue?
Anyway, the whole conversation now appears to have been moved to his "private wall" on FB. So if Mr. Jamieson wants it now suddenly to be private, why are we discussing the issue in public?
Quote:
i’m so let down with that comment that i feel like saying ‘at least i know what is thought of heraldry artists around here…we care about their art, of course, but not about the artist’
What utter nonsense.
Quote:
p.s. Joe this was not about a problem with him and his customers…you really shoulda researched this more before you made that comment. so be it.
The blog that you cited was all about the opacity of Jamieson Gallery’s business practices. Are we just supposed to accept on faith that there’s anything more to this than that? When I see someone whining in reference to himself, "I guess once you start making a name for yourself there will always be those who will want to bring you down" (from ASJ’s FB wall), well, my antennae start twitching. Sorry: faith is the evidence of things unseen. For these unseen things, I want to see some more tangible evidence.
What does any of this have to do with American heraldry? What does any of this have to do with heraldic arts? This entire thread seems to be about someone impugning Andy Jamieson based on the way his website is set up. Now that means we’re going to use this forum to start a discussion about Andy’s worth as an individual and have pro-Andy and anti-Andy camps?
What Andrew is like as a person and how his fiancee runs his website has NOTHING to do with the American Heraldry Society. We aren’t the heraldry police. Anyone who has "concerns" about Andrew’s veracity or integrity should take that up with HIM and not voice them here!
The only thing, it seems to me, that we should discuss on this forum about Andrew Jamieson is his exceedingly good artwork.
I am with Joe on this one and I am locking this thread.
I will keep this thread locked for a VERY short while and then it will go poof!