Heraldry
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The German Hyghalmen Roll was made in the late fifteenth century and illustrates the German practice of repeating themes from the arms in the crest. (See Roll of arms ).
Heraldry
Symbolisms of Heraldry Meanings of the symbols found in heraldry and on coats of arms. The following symbolisms have been excerpted from W. Cecil Wade's "The Symbolisms of Heraldry or A Treatise on the Meanings and Derivations of Armorial Bearings". Published in London in 1898.
Symbolism of Heraldry
Blank lozenge surrounded by decorative cord (cordeliere), as used to display a woman's individual coat of arms in some heraldic traditions. In English heraldry , a woman may bear arms by inheritance from her father [ 1 ] or by grant to herself. When unmarried, she displays her arms on a lozenge (a diamond shape) or on an oval or oval-like shape. Traditionally, a woman does not display her arms on a shield, as the shield originated with knights and warfare, and is thus viewed as fitting for a man, but not a woman. [ citation needed ] Recently though, some armigerous women have chosen to break with tradition display their arms using a shield. [ citation needed ]
Women in heraldry
The lozenge in heraldry is a diamond-shaped charge (an object that can be placed on the field of the shield), usually somewhat narrower than it is tall. It is to be distinguished in modern heraldry from the fusil , which is like the lozenge but narrower, though the distinction has not always been as fine and is not always observed even today. A mascle is a voided lozenge—that is, a lozenge with a lozenge-shaped hole in the middle—and the rarer rustre is a lozenge containing a circular hole in the centre. A field covered in a pattern of lozenges is described as lozengy; similar fields of mascles are masculy, and fusils, fusily. The lozenge has for many centuries been particularly associated with women as a vehicle for the display of their coats of arms (instead of the escutcheon or shield).
Lozenge (heraldry)
In heraldry , cadency is any systematic way of distinguishing otherwise identical coats of arms belonging to members of the same family. Cadency is necessary in heraldic systems in which a given design may be owned by only one person at once, generally the head of the senior line of a particular family. Because heraldic designs may be used by sons whilst their father is still alive, some form of differencing is required so as not to usurp the father's arms, known as the "undifferenced" or "plain coat". Historically arms were only heritable by males and therefore cadency marks have no relevance to daughters, except in the modern era in Canadian heraldry. These differences are formed by adding to the arms small and inconspicuous marks called brisures , similar to charges but smaller. They are placed on the fess-point, or in-chief in the case of the label. [ 1 ] Brisures are generally exempt from the rule of tincture .
