[tirrigh-heralds] Confusion about an online ordinary result

[Wulfstan Hrafnsson]

Thanks for the info and suggestion.  I hadn't even thought about checking
under "couped".  Nor had I considered putting a teritary charge on the
beastie, though I really like that idea.  I'm still relatively new to this
side of heraldry, having done mostly voice stuff so far, but I'm getting the
impression that the best way to use the Ordinary is to use the broadest
search terms feasible (obviously "Beast" is too broad if you're looking for
dogs) and then run down the list, possibly refining the terms if an initial
result is too broad, rather than using specific terms as one would on a
Google- or some database searches.  Have I got the right idea there?

Wulfstan

On Sun, May 9, 2010 at 10:33 PM, Teceangl <tierna.britt at gmail.com> wrote:

> > I'm contemplating either "Fieldless, a wolf's head erased argent" or
> "Azure,
> > a wolf's head erased argent" as my badge,
>
> Not sure how you're searching, but there's a huge hole in that
> collection of terms: couped.  No heraldic difference between erased
> and couped, and if you were specifically searching on erased you'd
> have missed all couped heads.  And then there are the fielded returns
> against anything you might devise with a field. 'Azure, a fox's mask
> argent' is a conflict with one CD for posture of the head. Searching
> on words is dangerous.  Heck, there's at least one canine's head
> that's blazoned without neck treatment: '(Fieldless) A wolf's head
> ululant gules.'  So even if you think you're clever and search
> 'couped' also, you miss it.
>
> You did hit Beast - Dog, though, so you don't need to see my litany on
> all the terms registered that mean 'canine' and get no difference and
> elude searches on specific words (like, oh, terrier for instance...)
> :)
>
> Note Alicia pulled up Head - Beast - Dog and scanned the category.
> She might have plugged 'erased' into her browser search, as all her
> cites were erased heads.  If so, same problem as above. She missed all
> couped heads.  She's right (and could have found it in Laurel
> precedents) that there's zero difference for treatment of the neck, be
> it couped, couped close, erased, erased close, or anything else (once
> upon a time in the early days erased might have been blazoned
> 'rayonny' in some spelling or another - there are several).
>
> George of Glen Laurie - August of 1979 (via Caid): Azure, a St.
> Bernard dog's head couped at the neck bearing a cask at its neck, all
> proper. [Canis familiaris extrariis St. Bernardi]
> Against the azure fielded proposal there is just one CD for head tincture.
>
> Now the good news - clearing conflict is easy because the design is so
> good. Charge the head (on the neck, that's the period spot) with a
> good heraldic charge. A mullet, heart or saltorel would be highly
> identifiable and wonderfully period. German armory uses gouttes on
> heads. I've even seen a bird (martlet or the like, clean lines)
> charging a period canine's head.  Pick something you like (not a
> sword, not a cross moline) and make the tertiary charge azure. I
> checked and that motif ought to be clear, at least in the fieldless
> version. On a field it'd depend on what's already registered.  Fielded
> badges are a pain anyway; you need to splotch on a blob of color in
> standard heraldic shape of display. Fieldless can go _anywhere_. :)
>
> - Teceangl
> --
> KWHSS website: http://kwhss.sca.org
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://tirrigh.org/pipermail/collegeofheralds_tirrigh.org/attachments/20100510/09397890/attachment.htm>