Page 1 of 1

Suggestion

Posted: 04 Jun 2013, 02:50
by Edward Hillenbrand
I would like to see included in our blazons why we chose the colors and images we did. What do they symbolize for us? This will serve two purposes. One, it will help us to be better educated into the lore of our art. Secondly, it will help us brag a bit about our arms. :D

Mr. Zajic has two winged rabbits on his CoA. I am sure in Serbia the winged rabbit has a very different meaning than it does in American culture and I would love to know the meaning and the reasoning behind this choice.

Also why do we have a mouse holding a paint brush? It looks cute, but all I can think of is that kid's series of books about the heroic mouse!

Re: Suggestion

Posted: 04 Jun 2013, 05:17
by JMcMillan
Edward Hillenbrand wrote:Also why do we have a mouse holding a paint brush?


The IAAH exists only in cyberspace, meaning that a key instrument of interactions is a .........

Re: Suggestion

Posted: 05 Jun 2013, 00:14
by Bruce E Weller
Apropos of the initial post here, and by way of introduction, a short story.
Having no knowledge of arms --save by way of occasionally noticing of same-- it occurred to me some years ago that it would be amusing to have a visual pun on my family name and an annulus of bricks seemed like a good starting point. Australia having greater and greater focus on the East and a random contact with the Japanese mon rather crystallised this well-head image and the depiction of water as (seven) wavy lines alternating white and blue finalised the concept.
My encounter with IAAH lead me to Boutell (in which I am presently rather buried) and to the fountain. Oh dear, my burst of brilliant originality has been pre-empted by (I guess) several centuries.
Perhaps heraldry is part of the human psyche or it may be that I am staggeringly unoriginal, no matter, back to a study of Boutell (but still vaguely puzzled as to the reasoning behind a mandated even number of barry wavy (at page 33)).

Re: Suggestion

Posted: 05 Jun 2013, 01:32
by JMcMillan
Bruce E Weller wrote: (but still vaguely puzzled as to the reasoning behind a mandated even number of barry wavy (at page 33)).


Merely an English-Scottish-Irish convention. You can always get an odd number of stripes by blazoning "Azure three bars wavy Argent" or vice versa. Or you can follow the lead of the designers of the U.S. national arms and use the odd number despite the convention.

Re: Suggestion

Posted: 11 Jun 2013, 17:20
by steven harris
Edward Hillenbrand wrote:I would like to see included in our blazons why we chose the colors and images we did. What do they symbolize for us? This will serve two purposes. One, it will help us to be better educated into the lore of our art. Secondly, it will help us brag a bit about our arms. :D

I very much agree with Edward. Aside from the Canadians, I am unaware of any jurisdiction that records (let alone publishes) design rationales. This is a shame.

When I had my arms recorded with the NEHGS (the closest thing to a heraldic authority that we have is the US), I included a rather detailed three-page design rationale. Perhaps one day my nth-great-grandchild will take an interest in either genealogy and/or heraldry. This is my way of stepping forward and letting him or her know exactly why I designed my arms the way that I did.

I posted the same on this forum as well, before it was lost. Here is a still extant copy that I also posted on another forum:
http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f255 ... ull-74687/
Enjoy the read!