July 2005 - Laurel LoAR - Ealdormere Submissions

RETURNS

Ealdormere, Kingdom of. Badge. (Fieldless) A wolf passant argent, collared and sustaining a flagstaff sable flying a banner of Gules, three trilliums argent barbed and seeded vert.

This was pended from the LoAR of November 2004 to allow discussion by the College of Arms. As noted at the time, the badge has the appearance of being a supporter. The College of Arms neither protects nor regulates the use of crests or supporters, and therefore will not register any submission that appears to be one.

Argent Snail has argued that this does not, in fact, appear to be a supporter: "We support registering this, as we can find no use of passant/statant/four legs on the ground beasts/monsters being used in supporters? We looked at about 30 different heraldry books that we thought possibly might have pictures of period supporters in them. Most of them did not have any pictures of supporters. Of the ones I found, with *one* full exception and 3 other strange cases, the supporting animals/humans/angels/monsters were upright/erect/rampant/salient/etc."

Further reseach has shown that in some areas, such as Italy, sejant supporters are relatively common. In addition, the occasional passant/couchant supporter has been found. Black Stag found two examples from Renaissance Florence, cited from Francesca Fumi Cambi Gado's book Stemmi : "One supporter that is somewhere between passant and couchant is in figure 122 (Corrado di Salimbeni Terlatini da Citta di Castello, 1487). A couchant guardant lion supporter is in figure 138 (Ugolino Fondi da Cittaducale, 1506)."

Bruce Draconarius of Mistholme notes:

However, there are examples of supporters in period art that are not upright: as with any other heraldic charge, it's a matter of the supporters being drawn to fill the space available to them. St. John-Hope ("Heraldry for Craftsmen and Designers", 1929, p.193) shows how supporters originated on heraldic seals, where the gap between the circular edge of the seal and the triangular shield was often filled with heraldic charges. These charges evolved into supporters; they were upright because of the vertical space they were filling.

On the other hand, when the space for the supporters wasn't vertical, there was no requirement that the supporters be upright. Thus, Hope (op.cit., fig.156) shows the royal tomb of Henry VII: the shield supported by two angels reclining instead of upright. G.W. Eve ("Heraldry as Art", 1907, fig.175) shows a Limoges enamel by Penicaud, early 16th C., where the supporters are horizontal (angels volant, in essence), to fill their space.

Supporters aren't defined by posture, but by function. If a figure is holding up a display of armory then that figure is a supporter. To claim that a passant beast is supporting an armorial display but is somehow not a supporter of that display would twist the meaning of "supporter" beyond reason. By this definition, the badge submitted here shows a supporter and thus must be returned. This is a valid method of armorial display and may be used as such. It just can't be registered.

We note that the Paschal lamb, a lamb passant maintaining a banner argent charged with a cross gules, is a special case. The banner is almost invariably drawn much smaller than the lamb -- and, indeed, the banner could be considered part of the definition of the charge. Its only contribution to our discussion is as evidence that there's nothing inherently impossible about passant beasts holding up banners. Given this, we will register passant creatures maintaining or sustaining a banner that is not -- and cannot -- be protected armory. This means a banner of a single tincture other than Ermine (the protected arms of Brittany) or Vert (the protected flag of Libya).