Heraldry is such a specialized field that it may help researchers of pottery marks to explain some terms d'art.

A depiction of the coat of arms with supporters, crest, and other elements is termed the achievement. The main parts are labelled.



Some following posts discuss certain armorial aspects in slightly more detail. The terms used are generally common to British, Commonwealth, and American heraldry.

-- Edited by Athena MM at 05:00, 2006-09-20

The coat of arms itself consists of :

1. the shield;

2. any divisions of the shield's surface;

3. the devices, or charges, decorating the shield;

4. and the tinctures or furs that color the images.

The formal description of the arms (and of the full achievement) is called the blazon; it uses a very specialized and archaic vocabulary presented in prescribed terms. For example, the official blazon for the arms in the first post to this thread--the royal arms of the United Kingdom, as displayed when the Queen is in England--is as follows:

Quarterly, first and fourth Gules three lions passant gardant in pale Or (for England) second quarter Or a lion rampant within a double tressure flory-counter-flory Gules (for Scotland), third quarter Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for Ireland), the whole surrounded by the Garter. For a Crest upon the royal helm, the imperial crown Proper, thereon a lion statant gardant Or imperially crowned Proper. For Supporters, dexter a lion rampant gardant Or crowned as the crest, sinister a unicorn Argent, armed, crined, and unguled Proper gorged with a coronet composed of crosses patée and fleurs de lis, a chain affixed thereto passing between the forelegs and reflexed over the back also Or. Motto: "Dieu et mon Droit" in the compartment below the shield, with the Union rose, shamrock, and thistle engrafted on the same stem.
Whew!

-- Edited by Athena MM at 21:20, 2006-09-20

The shield can take several shapes; the major ones are shown here.



The first is a medieval shape; the second is known as a heater, and is favored in Britain and the US today. The third, the Halbrundschild, is a German shape favored in much of the Continent. The fourth and fifth, the oval and lozenge, are shapes originally used for the arms of women and clerics. The last is an example of the impractical elaboration of the shield that became increasingly common in the 18th and 19th centuries. This type of form is often seen in older Western pottery marks and Asian imitations.

-- Edited by Athena MM at 23:01, 2006-10-18

The face of the shield, or the field, can be divided or organized in many ways; the basic divisions are shown below, with their proper terms.




The dividing lines can be straight or modified--wavy, castellated, sawtoothed, and so on (these modifications have specialized names). In fact, many arms consist simply of the field divided up in this fashion and colored in contrasting tinctures.

-- Edited by Athena MM at 02:19, 2006-09-26

Shields originally carried very simple images, ones that could be recognized from far across the battlefield, but today any creature, plant, object, word--even weather--can be borne upon a shield. The most common in Western heraldry are probably the lion, the eagle, and the cross in its many variations. Here are some charges seen in pottery marks.






-- Edited by Athena MM at 11:47, 2006-09-26

When the reproduction medium does not employ color, heralds have a system for indicating tinctures (colors and metals) that employs lines and dots in various patterns (below). These patterns are not to be confused with devices. It has been conventional, by the way, to use white for Argent and yellow for Or.



Fields and charges can also be "colored" by furs, of which the most popular--ermine and vair--appear below.



-- Edited by Athena MM at 04:31, 2006-09-26

The crest, often misused to refer to a coat of arms, is a charge that sits atop the helm in the achievement (women and clergy generally do not bear crests). Originally a crest derived from one of the charges on the shield, but today the crest may bear no relation to the rest of the achievement, and is often shown without any helm at all when representing an organization rather than a private individual. Crests for towns often sit within a mural crown (A); naval crowns (B) are often used for ports and shipping concerns. Other crests sit within, or even consist of, coronets (C) or crowns, such as the British (D) or Hanoverian (E).

A. B. C. D. E.

Knowing the kind of crown encircling the crest can be the first step in identifying an unknown mark.

Many potteries have adopted crests rather than full achievements to serve as their maker marks; these are often displayed within a wreath of laurel or oak leaves (below, left). One of the most recognizable crests is the three ostrich feathers of the Prince of Wales (below, right), originally used by British companies which had earned the Prince's patronage.

Badges are often seen as pottery marks, especially in works of British origin. They originated as embroidered, metal, or painted images derived usually from a lord's coat of arms, and were worn by that lord's retinue and forces, much like livery. In Scotland today, badges based on the clan chief's crest, encircled by a garter or sword belt bearing the chief's motto or war cry, are sometimes available to all members of the clan--men, women, and children. The badges of the MacDougall (left) and Robertson (right) clans are shown below.
..........

The Garter is the emblem of England's most prestigious and selective honor, the Most Noble Order of the Garter. This garter reproduces the original velvet belt that held up a medieval lady's hose beneath her robes. It encircles the English sovereign's coat of arms.

Seals now refer to impressions (or depictions of impressions) of a device, often heraldic, made on documents or other other items as a means of authentication, and were originally made in place of, later accompanying, a signature. Armigerous persons commonly had seals made showing their arms or crest, often as a signet ring, and used these seals on official documents; most nations today have official seals and often use them to authenticate treaties. Seals are also widely used in Asia to this day. Pottery manufacturers have designed company marks that imitate seals, both Western and Asian.

Here are two (obverse) examples of seals, the Imperial Seal of Japan (left) and the seal of the Brookfield Glass Company (right).

..........


-- Edited by Athena MM at 16:48, 2006-09-30

If a pottery mark is heraldic, it is often possible to deduce its national origin. Here are some clues offered by Wikipedia:

• Chevrons and 5-pointed mullets are popular in France and Britain, rare elsewhere.
  
  
• Saltires are most popular in Spain and Scotland.
  
  
• A plain field with a charged chief is typically Scottish.
  
  
• A shield divided into two dissimilar coats, one above the other, is probably Italian.
  
  
• A shield with a checkerboard of tiny coats, with an escutcheon in the center, almost certainly is German.
  
  
• Bordures and, to a lesser extent, orles often bear charges in Spain and Portugal.
  
  
• A large number of Hungarian arms consist of some animal standing on a green hill against a blue sky.
  
  
• Trees are most often seen in Mediterranean arms.
  
  
• A purely geometric coat of arms is relatively unlikely to be Mediterranean.
  
  
• A shield with three or more crested helms is usually German. Certain types of crests, too, are typically German, such as a pair of horns or a tall hat in the tinctures of the shield.
  

-- Edited by Athena MM at 23:08, 2006-10-18