Salutations, fellow heralds!
In the wake of Kathy’s badge (aka: Gilberta the Dravencoon), I am helping an acquaintance assume arms for herself. She is an artist in her own right (although not a heraldic one) and has developed a chimeric hybrid that she’d like to use as her main charge.
She has provided me with a couple of images (I attached one below). It is essentially a black panther with bat-like or dragon-like wings having blue membranes.
My blazon at this point is: “a panther sejant erect Sable armed and langued Gules” – but how would the wings be best described? Simply adding “and winged Azure” doesn’t quite seem to cover it…
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
steven harris;101491 wrote:
My blazon at this point is: “a panther sejant erect Sable armed and langued Gules” – but how would the wings be best described? Simply adding “and winged Azure” doesn’t quite seem to cover it…
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Hello, Steven.
The beast can’t be simply a panther, because that means something entirely different in heraldry, whether English:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/lcr/fsca/img/20000.jpg
Or Continental:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Caranthania.jpg
English panthers are spotted in many colors and have flames or fumes coming out of their ears and mouths. German panthers don’t have flames coming out of their ears but do have horns.
I thought we had debated how to blazon a natural panther in the past but can’t find the thread. I think the authentically heraldic formula would probably be "an ounce sable," "ounce" being the old name for a natural leopard. (A heraldic leopard, of course, being another word for "lion passant guardant.") As I recall, my idea didn’t get much traction.
So perhaps "natural panther" would do.
Anyway, on the wings I would just say Azure. Specifying the color of the ribbing (right term?) seems too complex for good heraldry, but if your friend absolutely must, then I’d say "winged Azure the (whatever their right name is) Sable."
Why not call it a jaguar? Biologically speaking, it’s not a species. Black panther is just a melanistic variant of either P. onca (jaguar) or P. pardus (leopard).
Also, I think you need to somehow specify that "winged" here does not mean feathered wings.
My inclination is to, in effect, create a new "species" called "dragon-winged jaguar", then you can freely describe its coloring. Basically, this is what we do with bats (cf. a bat sable winged azure), except we don’t use the circumlocution "winged-mouse" since we understand that "bat" means "winged-mouse". Since we’re in a situation that we don’t have a common name to describe the circumlocution "dragon-winged jaguar", I think we have not choice but to use a circumlocution.
So maybe "a dragon-winged jaguar sable armed and langued gules winged azure."
Joseph McMillan;101492 wrote:
I think the authentically heraldic formula would probably be "an ounce sable," "ounce" being the old name for a natural leopard. (A heraldic leopard, of course, being another word for "lion passant guardant.")
Except in Scotland where the natural leopards of the city of Aberdeen are blazoned as "two leopards Proper" LR lxxix/61 29th July 1996 for the latest matriculation but a blazon dating back at least to the first matriculation in the current Lyon Register LR i/455 25th February 1674.
This appears to be the current emblazonment as used by the city council.
I’m with Deacon Dan—er, Rev Gill, sorry! 
Natural panters have been used in the arms of Gabon see http://www.ngw.nl/heraldrywiki/index.php?title=National_Arms_of_Gabon
Joseph McMillan;101492 wrote:
I thought we had debated how to blazon a natural panther in the past but can’t find the thread.
Not sure if there are others but here is one discussion. Starting with post #17.
http://www.americanheraldry.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6796&page=2&highlight=mjsmith
