ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2448 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2448 ************************************ 24 Jan 2002 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether "pily bendy sinister gules and sable" is an appropriate field for heraldry used somewhere in Europe before 1600. Before we discuss our results, we want to make certain you understand how we approached this question. The Academy tries to help Societyfolk in choosing and using names that fit the historical cultures they are trying to re-create. Our research can sometimes be used to support submissions to the College of Arms, but that is not our goal and our results are often incompatible with the College's needs. If your main goal is to register your arms, then our research may not be particularly useful to you. You didn't tell us what time and place you are trying to re-create with your arms. Your name is Irish, but you cited both German and English arms in support of your heraldic design. There's no significant difference between English and Irish heraldic style, but German heraldry was quite different. Examples from one country don't support the use of the same motif in the other [1]. Unfortunately, we haven't found data to support your design in any culture. We have not found any example of "pily bendy" or "pily bendy sinister" in period arms, so we cannot recommend that field division as a good re-creation for any period culture. We have found examples of "pily fesswise" in a color and metal in late-period German arms [5], but we don't feel it is safe to generalize to "pily bendy". We have found a few examples of multiply divided fields of two colors in German arms [2], but none that really supports the design you've proposed. In one late-period source, we found [6]: Hoheneck: Checky argent, sable, and gules, a quarter or. Schleuser: Per fess gules and checky sable and azure, two keys in saltire or. Chistwitz: Per pale gules and azure, a fess countercompony gules and azure fimbriated argent. Breitenbuch: Azure, two chevrons gules. The space between the chevrons is the same width as the chevrons, so this is akin to a coarse chevronny. Linsingen: Gules, on three bars azure seven lenses argent 3, 3, and 1. The field could be described as barry of seven gules and azure. Hermensdorf: Quarterly argent and barry gules and azure, in bend two roses proper. The second quarter could be 'gules, three bars azure' with uniform spacing, but the very bottom of the third quarter seems to show just a bit of a fourth blue bar, in which case it would definitely be 'barry (of 8) gules and azure'. At any rate the impression is of barry in both quarters. Drebber: Azure, nine lozenges 1, 2, 3, 2, 1 gules. Very borderline, since this is unambiguously colored charges on a colored field, but it does have a field-like regularity. Nagolt (a city): Per fess argent and lozengy gules and sable, a nail proper. The nail is a sort of pale, washed-out blue. We're assuming that it's a nail, German , and that these are canting arms. You mentioned arms from the English 'Fenwick Roll', Barry gules and sable, a lion rampant Or. We found it, too: The original bearer is unknown [3, 4]. In your original letter, you mentioned consulting the article "A Collection of Period German Heraldry (1400-1600) for SCA Heralds" in our library. Unfortunately, some of the generalization at the beginning of that article are incorrect; we are in the process of revising the article. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Blaise de Cormeilles, Zenobia Naphtali, Pedro de Alcazar, Ursula Georges, Lindorm Eriksson, Elsbeth Anne Roth, Talan Gwynek, Rouland Carre, Teceangl Bach, Adelaide de Beaumont, Will Dekne, and Gwenllian verch Maredudd. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 25 Jan 2002 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] The SCA College of Arms might accept this mixture of examples in support of a submission; but that is not the approach the Academy takes. [2] There is a large collection of early medieval German armory in the Manesse Codex, reproduced on the web at http://www.tempora-nostra.de/manesse/manesse_start.shtml. A few of these arms appear to have fields barry or gyronny of two colors. However, further research shows that the black parts of these fields are in fact argent; they were painted with silver which has tarnished. The one exception may be #78, Per fess Or and gyronny of 6 parts from fess point sable (?) and azure. However, #56 has a similar field, and another source says that the apparently-black parts are argent. See Charles Stuart O'Connor, "The Heraldry of the Manesse", in Proceedings of the Caer Mear Heraldic Symposium (May 1983, Richmond, Virginia), p.83. [3] Peter Gwynn-Jones, _The Art of Heraldry: Origins, Symbols, and Designs_ (Parkgate Books Ltd., London, 1998), p.95. [4] Chesshyre, Hubert & Woodcock, Thomas, _Dictionary of British Arms: Medieval Ordinary_, vol. I (London: The Society of Antiquaries of London, 1992), p.140. [5] Siebmacher, Johann, _Johann Siebmachers Wappenbuch von 1605_, 2 vols., ed. Horst Appuhn (Dortmund: Harenberg, 1988, 1989). If you need specific examples of "pily fesswise", please write again. [6] Siebmacher, pp.55, 73, 81, 114, 155, 162, 209, 246.