The International Association of Amateur Heralds

Hello! Over the past couple of weeks, I have been sketching and tweaking a couple of proposals for a 'new' coat of arms of the (former Yugoslav) Republic of Macedonia.

The common basic design of the achievements is inspired by the works of Vasilie Popoviḱ-Cico, the author of the second coat of arms of the People's/Socialist Republic (the current emblem plus the Yugoslav Star on top, on an oval silver shield), and Miroslav Grčev, who had designed the current sun-adorned flag of the Republic.

Proposal no 1 (on an "Iberian" escutcheon -- hope I got the blazon right): Gules, a bordure or, issuant from water in base barry wavy gules and argent a mountain argent, in chief a sun in its splendour or.


Proposal no 2 (on a heater-style escutcheon): Gules, issuant from water in base barry wavy azure and argent a mountain argent, in chief a sun in its splendour or.


(Only after I had finished colouring in the second variant did I realise it 'resembled' the symbols of British Columbia and Kiribati -- honest!)

The 24-rayed sun stands for "[t]he new sun of freedom", as mentioned in the official anthem of the Republic, Denes nad Makedonija ("Today over Macedonia"). The five-peaked mountain is a stylised rendition of Mt Ljuboten, a peak of the Šar Mountains lying on the Kosovo-Macedonia border. Lastly, the wavy stripes of alternating red/blue and silver represent the longest river in Macedonia, the Vardar river.

All suggestions and criticism are more than welcome!

I don't think the shape of the shield matters ...

What is the etymology of "Vardar"? Is there anything (other than the obvious water) that would suggest either red or blue? For example, what are the colors of the current national flag?

If there's no particular symbolism that would make blue more appropriate, personally I like the red better -

Michael F. McCartney wrote:I don't think the shape of the shield matters ...

There are blazons that state the shield shape as specified in proposal 1. But it only matters if the herald considers that it should (tradition, best shape for the charges, etc).

Aleksa:

The yellow edge to the shield in proposal 1 is not a bordure, it is typical of the edge of "arms" designed in the Soviet era (or by amateurs who think that shields need to be edged!) This is a bordure:



"Barry wavy argent and azure" has pretty much been done to death to suggest the sea, a lake, or a river (it features in my own arms!). As "Vardar" is supposed to come from "Bardários" meaning black water, you might consider making the barry wavy argent and sable. You might also consider another solution entirely.

"Sun in splendour" sounds good but it is not, I think, an adequate description to distinguish the sun in this shield from the usual sun in splendour, i.e. a sun surrounded by short beams coming to a point.

If 24 beams are significant, that should form part of the blazon, as should the fact that the beams diverge and continue to the edge of the shield. That the beams are partly covered by the mountain also needs to be stated in some way, unless the sun were blazoned first.

I like Chris's suggestion of sable for the Vardar to denote the etymology.

Since the river rises in the northern mountains and flows generally southward, how about using a pile wavy sable charged on the white mountain?

The mountain could also be simplified to a per chevron partition, gules and argent.

The pile wavy is a neat idea and less trite than the wavy base.

A simple division per chevron, on the other hand, would be less specific to Macedonia, given that Mt Ljuboten has its five peaks. These can be seen, just, in the view of the mountain from the Kosova side shown in Wikipedia. With the mountain left as it is, the blazon should include a reference to the five peaks or, better still, describe the charge as "a stylised rendition of Mt Ljuboten."

Per chevron double-beviled on each side"?
Or a new compound term "bedeviled" ?

If it needs to be a mountain of five peaks, then good heraldry would require blazoning it as "a mountain of five peaks" and leaving it up to the artist whether it is depicted as in the examples or naturalistically or something else. Ditto for the sun--specify how many points, if desired, but if it has to be depicted as shown in the example, then I think it has to be gyronny of X number with a roundel superimposed at the meeting point.