Escutcheon (heraldry)
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In heraldry, an escutcheon (pronounced /ɨˈskʌtʃən/), or scutcheon, is the shield displayed in a coat of arms. The term "crest" is often used incorrectly to designate this part of the coat of arms. The escutcheon shape is based on the Medieval shields that were used by knights in combat, and varied by region and time period accordingly. Since this shape has been regarded as a war-like device appropriate to men only, British ladies customarily bear their arms upon a lozenge, or diamond-shape, while clergymen and ladies in continental Europe bear theirs on a cartouche, or oval. Other shapes are possible, such as the roundel commonly used for arms granted to Aboriginal Canadians by the Canadian Heraldic Authority.
The word escutcheon is derived from Middle English escochon, from Anglo-Norman escuchon, from Vulgar Latin scūtiōn-, from Latin scūtum, "shield".[1] Derived from its meaning in heraldry, the term "escutcheon" can be used to represent a family and its honour. A family member who does something shameful can be described as a "blot on the escutcheon."
An inescutcheon is a smaller escutcheon that is shown within the main shield. This may be used for style,(I) in "pretense",(II) or similarly, for purposes of territorial claims,(III) or as a simple charge.(IV) In English Heraldry the husband of a heraldic heiress - a woman without any brothers - may place her father's arms in an escutcheon of pretence in the centre of his own shield as a claim ("pretense") to be the head of his wife's family. In the next generation the arms would then be quartered. Baron and Feme describes another iteration of the escutcheon.
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[edit] Points
The following are the points of the shield used in blazons to describe where (and how) a charge should be drawn:[2]
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[edit] Other meanings
- In the German army under the Nazi regime, military awards worn on the sleeve near the shoulder were also called escutcheon or shields.
- Military escutcheon, a chromolithography depicting the military record of a veteran, which were produced in the United States from the end of the Civil War until about 1907.[3]
[edit] Footnotes
Note (I): e.g. The arms of the Swedish Collegium of Arms shows the three crowns of Sweden borne each upon its own escutcheon within the main shield.
Note (II): The origin of the inescutcheon of pretense lies in the armorial representation of territorial property. A man coming into lordship by right of his wife would naturally wish to bear the arms associated with that territory, and so would place them inescutcheon over his own; "and arms exclusively of a territorial character have certainly very frequently been placed 'in pretense'." Fox-Davies (1909), p. 539. It is also worth noting that the arms thus borne in pretense represent arms of assumption, while those on the larger shield represent arms of descent.
Note (III): Especially in continental Europe, sovereigns have long held the custom of bearing their hereditary arms in an inescutcheon en surtout over the territorial arms of their dominions. Fox-Davies (1909), p. 541. This custom, coupled with the frequency of European sovereigns ruling over several armigerous territories, may have given rise to the common European form of "quarterly with a heart".
Note (IV): e.g. The noble french family of Abbeville bears arms, Or, three escutcheons gules.
- ^ "Escutcheon". American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed.. Houghton Mifflin Company. 2000. http://www.bartleby.com/61/11/E0211100.html. Retrieved on 2009-03-22.
- ^ Boutell, Charles (1914). Fox-Davies, A.C.. ed. Handbook to English Heraldry, The (11th Edition ed.). London: Reeves & Turner. pp. 33. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/23186.
- ^ The Civil War and Underground Railroad Museum of Philadelphia - Escutcheons
[edit] Further reading
- Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles (1909). A Complete Guide to Heraldry. New York: Dodge Pub. Co.
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