SYMBOL OF ABUNDANCE, HOSPITALITY AND FAITH

There are certain terms which apply to heraldic fish which should be noted. A fish in a horizontal position is termed naiant, whether it is in or upon water or merely depicted as a charge upon a shield. A fish is termed hauriant if it is in a perpendicular position, but though it will usually be represented with the head upwards in default of any specific direction to the contrary, it by no means follows that this is always the case, and it is more correct to state whether the head is upwards or downwards, a practice which it is usually found will be conformed to. When the charges upon a shield are simply blazoned as "fish," no particular care need be taken to represent any particular variety. The fish shown in the top margin, is a tuna naiant.

HERALDRY RAMBLINGS

THE KING OF HERALDRY

Heraldic art without the lion would not amount to very much, for no figure plays such an important or

 such an extensive part in armory as the lion, in one or other of its various positions. These present-day positions are the results of modern differentiation, arising from the necessity of a larger number of varying coats of arms; but there can be little doubt that in early times the majority of these positions did not exist.

GETTING A FOOTHOLD

A compartment is anything depicted below the shield as a foothold or resting-place for the supporters, or indeed for the shield itself. Sometimes it is a fixed part of the blazon and a constituent part of the heritable heraldic bearings. At other times it is a matter of mere artistic fancy, and no fixed rules exist to regulate or control nor even to check the imagination of the heraldic artist. The fact remains that supporters must have something to stand upon, and if the blazon supplies nothing, the discretion of the artist is allowed considerable laxity.

DECEMBER WATCH

The elusive Dove guardant will be featured in December along with the Swan Guardant. Two very rare charges. Watch for a new Mantling in December as well...

The Griffin or Gryphon.--

A dimidiation of two Coats of Arms?

Though in the popular mind any heraldic monster is generically termed a griffin, the griffin has, nevertheless, very marked and distinct peculiarities. It is one of the hybrid monstrosities which heraldry is so fond of, and is formed by the body, hind-legs, and tail of a lion conjoined to the head and claws of an eagle, the latter acting as its forepaws. It has the wings of the eagle, which are never represented close, but it also has ears, and this, by the way, should be noted, because herein is the only distinction between a griffin's head and an eagle's head when the rest of the body is not represented. Though but very seldom so met with, it is occasionally found proper, by which description is meant that the plumage is usually of the brown colour of the eagle, the rest of the body being the natural colour of the lion. The griffin is frequently found with its beak and fore-legs of a different colour from its body, and is then termed "armed," though another term, "beaked and forelegged," is almost as frequently used. A very popular idea is that the origin of the griffin was the dimidiation of two coats of arms, one having an eagle and the other a lion as charges, but taking the origin of armory to belong to about the end of the eleventh century, or thereabouts, the griffin can be found as a distinct creation, not necessarily heraldic, at a very much earlier date.

Popular Free Graphic Software Serif Draw for Windows has introduced some changes worth noting. The software was in disfavour when Vista came out as the Free version of Serif would not work with the Vista operating system nor its offspring Windows 7. The new free version is now called the Draw Plus Starter Edition and works with Vista and Windows 7. We should further note that when you have Serif ready to go, to open a wmf file you don't select "open", you use "insert" from file. For those who want to try it out, click on the Serif logo.

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