English heraldry / [Charles Boutell].

  • Charles Boutell
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: English heraldry / [Charles Boutell]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    without any heraldic significance or any personal associa- tions being indicated by these figures and devices, which bear a general resemblance to the insignia of the Legions and Cohorts of Imperial Rome. Nos. 5 and 6 give repre- Nos. 5 and 6. Lance Flags—Bayeux Tapestry. sentations of the standards that are introduced into the Bayeux Tapestry. The same species of decoration, con- sisting chiefly of painted patterns, with discs, stars, crescents, and some other figures, continued in use in our own countrv until it was superseded by a true Heraldry; and it also mat be assumed to have prevailed in England in much earlier times. In still more remote ages a more decided Heraldry was displayed upon signets, coins, shields, and standards. In this ancient Heraldry, occasionally the important and cha- racteristic quality of hereditary association in certain devices is apparent. Thus, Virgil (Htneid, vii. 657) assigns to Aventinus “ insigne pciternum upon his shield—his hereditary device, derived by him from his father. But these devices generally appear to have their significance in a greater or a less degree restricted, amongst the ancients, to certain par- ticular incidents ; consequently in all these examples there is nothing to show that the man who bore one device at one time, did not bear another device at another time.* For * In his recently published “ Hand-book of Engraved Gems, Mr. King maintains that “ the devices on the signets of the ancients \\ ere both hereditary and unalterable, like our armorial bearings ; but. at the same time, he admits that the “ armorial bearings. which appear
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