ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 974
http://www.s-gabriel.org/974
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* NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports     *
*       contain errors that we haven't yet      *
*       corrected.  Please use it with caution. *
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18 May 1998
From:  (Josh Mittleman)


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You wrote on behalf of one of your clients and asked how to blazon a helm
with a patina of rust.  Here is what we have found.

A helm was used as a charge in coats of arms in at least as early as 1340
[1], but we have never seen anything in period armory which looks like
rusted metal.  The idea is too naturalistic; period heraldry was stylized
and symbolic rather than natural and pictorial.  Therefore, we recommend
against using a rusted helm as a charge.

Your client may be able to be to get a satisfactory feel to her arms by
making the helm sable (like blackened iron) or gules (which could be
reasonably similar to rust), and either of these tinctures can be placed on
the metal field that she wants.

I 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 Margaret M'fee, Fergus Stout, and
Zenobia Naphtali.

For the Academy,


  Arval Benicoeur
  18 May 1998

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References

[1] Cookes Ordinary of Arms, c.1340.

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