Impersonal arms on lozenges

[Arthur Radburn]

In Boutell's Heraldry, Wilfred Scott-Giles and John Brooke-Little commented on a women's college displaying its arms on a lozenge.

"This is an heraldic solecism," they wrote, "for a corporation, whether or not its members are all women, is regarded in heraldry as being masculine and should bear arms on a shield in the ordinary manner."

It's not an isolated case. Other known examples of academic and corporate arms on lozenges include :


England : Bolton School where the boys wear the arms as a shield and the girls wear it as a lozenge;


South Africa : Pretoria High School for Girls (registered at the Bureau of Heraldry in 1990), some other schools (not registered), and a branch of the Girl Guides.

Two questions for the forum :

1 : do members have any other examples of women's organisations or institutions displaying their arms on lozenges?

2 : what do members think of the practice -- is it really "an heraldic solecism" that should be avoided, or not?

[JMcMillan]

I remember thinking the "solecism" characterization was fairly silly when I first read it 40 years ago in reference to the arms of Girton College, Cambridge. I didn't understand even then how a corporation made up entirely of women could reasonably be described as masculine, and can you imagine the ridicule such a statement would provoke if made today?

[Chris Green]

In Aragon several municipalities' arms are on lozenges:

http://amateurheralds.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=937&start=20

[Arthur Radburn]

I remember thinking the "solecism" characterization was fairly silly when I first read it 40 years ago in reference to the arms of Girton College, Cambridge. I didn't understand even then how a corporation made up entirely of women could reasonably be described as masculine, and can you imagine the ridicule such a statement would provoke if made today?

Girton is an interesting case. It's been co-ed since 1976, and its website displays the arms on a shield, which would certainly be appropriate post-1976.

When preparing this topic, I tried to find out when it had displayed the arms on a lozenge, but I drew a blank. Scott-Giles mentioned them in an article in 1952 and said nothing about a lozenge, and Briggs' Civic and Corporate Heraldry (1971) shows them on a shield. Nor does the published blazon doesn't mention a lozenge.

[Michael F. McCartney]

I agree that the cited "rule" is silly. In any case, the arms are the arms regardless of shield shape, and any such rule deserves to be ignored .

[Mike_Oettle]

Arthur, while the Bureau of Heraldry registered the arms of Pretoria High School for Girls in 1990, it was in fact confirming a registration under the Protection of Names, Uniforms and Badges Act of 1935.
I suspect that the Bureau was more or less obliged to acknowledge the lozenge because of the previous registration.
The fact that Fred Brownell has a personal connection to the school (his daughters were pupils there) might also have something to do with it.
Incidentally my mother and her sister also attended that school, and more recently a niece of mine did also.

[JMcMillan]

The 1973 edition of Boutell, edited by JPB-L,
shows the Girton arms on a lozenge on the academic heraldry plate, as I recall.

[Arthur Radburn]

The 1973 edition of Boutell, edited by JPB-L,
shows the Girton arms on a lozenge on the academic heraldry plate, as I recall.

Yes, that's the only example of those arms on a lozenge that I've found. I wonder if it was copied from the original LPs.

[Marcus Karlsson]

In Aragon several municipalities' arms are on lozenges:

http://amateurheralds.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=937&start=20

The same hold true for Catalonia.


Comarca of Priorat, Catalonia.


City of Lleida (Lérida).

[Chris Green]

The Kingdom of Aragon and the Principality of Catalonia were of course united by marriage in 1137, so by the time Catalonian arms were being granted they were in fact Aragonese.