The International Association of Amateur Heralds

Yes the Landscape Heraldry seems to have lived on as can bee seen in the Arms of the Seychelles granted by Royal Warrant 27 May 1976. The Arms shows Flora and Fauna indigenious to the Islands. The Motto hails from the one used on the 1903 Badge of the Crown Colony.


Picture form Wikimedia Commons originaly published in Flaggen und Wappen by Hans-Ulirch Herzog, VEB Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig 1982. Perhaps a hint that Heraldry had become accepted during the Final Years of the German Democratic Republic, that such a Book could be published.

The Blason reads:

Arms: A coast of the Indian Ocean, on the shore a Seychelles-palm and a Aldabra giant Tortoise, in the Ocean an island and a schooner, all proper.

Crest: On a steel helmet to the dexter, lambrequined parted per fess Gules and Azure, lined Argent, three waves Azure, Argent and Azure, and a hovering White-tailed Tropicbird (Phaeton lepturus - Phaetonidæ), proper.

Supporters: Two Indo-Pacific Sailfishes (Istiophorus Platypterus - Scombroidei) proper.

Motto: FINIS CORONAT OPUS (The Completion crowns the Work).

An impossible crest marginally made better by artistic interpretation stretching the bounds to the extreme (it's no longer hovering but balancing on its wing tips). Actually the supporters are also impossible but at least supporters are confined to paper heraldry; crests were supposed to be capable of being worn in a tournament on top of the helm. The only way a knight could wear a hovering bird as a crest would be to have it wobbling around on a thin spring!!

It would not I suppose be beyond the wit of an armourer to make a tin bird to sit on a longish metal pin sticking out of the top of the helm. Another method would be to paint the bird on a flat piece of iron.

I have always been rather surprised that the College of Arms granted these Arms; particularly in a time period (the late twentieth century) when they ought to have known better!

The badges that preceded this CoA and appeared on the colonial flags were all "landscape" and featured palm tree, schooner and giant tortoise. The Government of the newly independent Republic was apparently attached to the traditional design and merely had the College of Arms modernise it. I don't suppose the then Garter felt inclined to make a fuss, as the Seychelles Government could simply have assumed the arms anyway (and saved themselves the fee).

Much the same happened when the Province of Natal obtained a grant of the arms of the Colony of Natal. The provincial administration absolutely insisted on continuing the usage of the pre-Union colony by ensigning the shield (landscape) with a crown that had a black chapeau in it. Garter protested, but the provincial council was insistent, and the College granted the arms as previously borne, including the motto scroll inscribed NATAL.
Regards,
Mike