The International Association of Amateur Heralds

I'm probably a couple years away from being able to apply for arms due to the price. But I was just curious how long the entire process took. My biggest question is how do you update arms, say if you receive a new medal or a bar onto an existing medal?

Valid questions. But surely you should address them directly to the CHA? If only they had FAQ on their web-site!

armorial@gg.ca

http://www.facebook.com/HeraldryHeraldique

Charles Veale wrote:I'm probably a couple years away from being able to apply for arms due to the price. But I was just curious how long the entire process took. My biggest question is how do you update arms, say if you receive a new medal or a bar onto an existing medal?

I am not familiar with Canadian practice and it may well be that they do illustrate "gongs" on Letters patent however, Medals etc are not a part of a grant of arms and are simply voluntary additional decoration to an achievement; you don't need to ask the CHA for permission to add or remove or update "gongs" from your own achievement, they are entirely optional. I realise of course that they do display their grants etc on their website and if this display included gongs then you may need to ask them to update their website as and when changes take place (as Chris suggested).

Updating the artwork would require paying the artist to modify the emblazonment, and CHA would need to update the online image and text. If I were the Chief Herald (laughably improbable) I'd say the grant - and the online record - should be "as of" the date of the grant.
The armiger could of course commission additional private emblazonments with any newer gongs & such...