Countinuing from the dicussion of Timorese heraldry I broaden the subject to include the heraldry of all of Portugal’s Overseas provinces: Angola, Mozambique, Sao Tomé e Principe, Guinea (-Bissau), Cabo Verde, Timor and Macao.
The provincial arms was placed on a armillary sphere and crowned with a special crown. The shield was composed of a field showing the quinas of Portugal a provincial symbol and a base with waves. A scroll bearing the inscription Provin. Portugesa de ... (before 1951 the text was Colónia Portuguesa de ...)
In the last decades of portuguese rule many municipalities was also granted arms. They was based on Portuguese civic heraldry with the shield ensinged by a mural crown with five, four and three towers accoring to status. Provincial Capitals had golden mural crowns with five towers, cities had silver mural crowns with five towers. A town (vila) had a silver mural crown with four towers and a settlement (povoacão) had a silver mural crown with three towers. Below the shield was placed a scroll with the name of the locality or in some instance a motto. A few was also awarded the Order of the Tower and the Sword which chain was shown around the shield.
Some pictures from ICA.
http://www.ngw.nl/int/afr/images/guibis2.jpg
The CoA of the Portuguese province of Guinea, with a Moor’s head on a staff as a provincial symbol.
http://www.ngw.nl/int/afr/ang/images/angola2.jpg
CoA of the Port. Prov. of Angola, with a Elephant and a Zebra as provincial symbols.
Did these CoA survived after independance ?
Nicolas
Very nice. What is the gold-colored object they are supported by/displayed upon?
Stuart wrote:
Very nice. What is the gold-colored object they are supported by/displayed upon?
It’s an armillary sphere.
From Wikipedia: "An important element of Portuguese heraldry since the 15th century, the armillary sphere was many times used in Portuguese colonial flags, mainly in Brazil. It was a navigation instrument used to calculate distances and represents the importance of Portugal during the Age of Discovery, as well as the vastness of its colonial empire when the First Republic was implemented.
Nicolas Vernot wrote:
Did these CoA survived after independance ?
Nicolas
As far as I know none survived independence. Nearly all former Provinces got a communist regime after independence and traditional heraldry was done away with and replaced by communistinfluenced emblems. The state emblem of Mozambique even included a Kalshnikov automatic rifle! Portuguese India (Goa, Daman and Diu) which I forgot to mention earlier was Conquered by Indian Forces in December 1961, and thier arms was abolished.
http://www.ngw.nl/int/asia/india/images/goa.jpg
CoA of Portuguese India from ICA.
http://www.ngw.nl/int/cav/images/praia.jpg
CoA of the City of Praia, capital of Cabo Verde-Islands. Picture from ICA.
http://www.ngw.nl/int/afr/ang/images/novoredo.jpg
CoA of the Angolan city of Novo Redondo, a exemple of a Motto. Picture from ICA.
http://www.ngw.nl/int/afr/moz/images/cabral.jpg
CoA of the town of Cabral in Mozambique. Picture from ICA.
Thank you, Markus, for your answer.
The surviving of colonial CoA is an interesting issue. I have been studying algerian colonial heraldry, and what happened after the independance is either :
- a complete abandon of the colonial CoA with nothing to replace it
- a completely different CoA
- an "refreshed" CoA, with most evident allusion to France or Christianism being replaced by Algerian national colors, crescent and arabic letters
- the use of the old colonial CoA (and in some instances, keeping truly colonialists charges).
Nicolas
I agree Nicolas the issue of colonial heraldry is an intresting issue. It seems that one of the former Portugese Overseas Provinces the Islands of Sao tome et Principe have created new heraldic arms for the Municipalities after independence:
http://www.ngw.nl/int/afr/stp/images/saotome.jpg
CoA of the Capital S. Tomé, during Portuguese times the arms was Within a brodure Argent charged with five Quinas in a field Gules in saltire five Cacao plants Or fructed Argent.
http://www.ngw.nl/int/afr/stp/images/santoant.jpg
CoA of Santo Antonio, during Portuguese times the Arms was: Sable between two Pelicans in piety Or St. Anthony Argent.
New renditions of Portugese municipalities can be found here:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Coats_of_arms_of_Portuguese_municipalities
By the way, I’ve seen a drawing of the Kingdom of Portugal’s coat of arms which include supporters that appear to be—dragons? Does anyone have a color image of these or happen to know what the supporters are?
As far as I can recall, if I am not mistaken, the supporters of the Portuguese arms were wyverns not dragons, since I do not recall them having lower legs, but rather a tail sort of thing :D. (Someone correct me if I am wrong) They were also used as a symbol during the Brazilian empire, on the badge of the Order of Dom Pedro, and on the Imperial Sceptre.
Cheers,
Jim Pelletier;416 wrote:
It’s an armillary sphere.
From Wikipedia: "An important element of Portuguese heraldry since the 15th century, the armillary sphere was many times used in Portuguese colonial flags, mainly in Brazil. It was a navigation instrument used to calculate distances and represents the importance of Portugal during the Age of Discovery, as well as the vastness of its colonial empire when the First Republic was implemented.
Here a few examples of the armillary sphere used in overseas flags, firstly the flag of the Portuguese Govenor-General of Brazil and secondly, the flag of the Empire of Brazil:
<div class=“bbcode_center” >
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/4255/govgenbrazilej7.gif
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/2899/bandimperialvv2.gif
</div>
MohamedHossam;62904 wrote:
As far as I can recall, if I am not mistaken, the supporters of the Portuguese arms were wyverns not dragons, since I do not recall them having lower legs, but rather a tail sort of thing :D. (Someone correct me if I am wrong) They were also used as a symbol during the Brazilian empire, on the badge of the Order of Dom Pedro, and on the Imperial Sceptre.
The Imperial Order of Dom Pedro I (Imperial Ordem de Pedro Primeiro) does use a dragon Or displayed as one of the components of the badge of the order. Most will assume that it is an eagle unless the badge is examined closely.
Charles Glass;62899 wrote:
By the way, I’ve seen a drawing of the Kingdom of Portugal’s coat of arms which include supporters that appear to be—dragons?
Several years ago Baron de Sao Roque, a fine heraldist, told me that this is a frequent foreign mistake and a fiction based on misinterpretation by some prominent non-Portuguese authors. He told me that the Portugese royal supporters are angels and that the dragons, usually legless at all, were borne as badges, "King’s beasts", sometimes accompanying the shield and thus "confusable" with the supporters. He although told me that it could be a bit different in the case of the Brasilian branch, although no formally established version of its arms had supporters at all.
