Heraldry is a language of emblems
(patterns, signs and symbols) which grew out of the military life of
the Middle Ages. It probably developed as it did from the need of
recognizing knights and their men in the field of battle.
With the coat of mail being uniformly worn, it was difficult to
distinguish a friend or enemy by his clothes. But he could be easily
identified at a distance by his shield, since each man had one of a
different design.
As the coat of mail became hot in the sun, a long sleeveless garment
was worn over it. This was the surcoat (meaning: over-coat).
In the XIII th century the surcoat became short and it was often the
custom to bear the emblems (also called bearings or arms) of the
wearer on it. So came the expression "coat of arms". In the XIV th
century an even shorter surcoat was worn, called a jupon.
To be Continued . . .
Carpenter Coat of
Arms
Arms: Paly of six
argent and gules on a chevron azure three crosses crosslet or.
Motto: Per Acuta
Belli Translation: Through the asperities of war.
Origin: English
Carpenter is an
occupational name meaning one who was a skilled craftsman in
building and working with wood.
Spelling variations include: Carpenter, Carpentar, Carpenters,
Carpentier and many more.
First found in Suffolk where they held a family seat from very
ancient times.
Some of the first settlers of this name or some of its variants
were: Philip Carpenter was a fisherman at Cape Elizabeth, Ambrose
Carpenter was a merchant in Hampton, and John Carpenter was living
in the town of Saco during the 17th century.
Foreign Equivalents:
Shriner (German) and Martello (Italian).
Carpenter
Symbolism
Chevron:
Protection; granted as a reward to one who has achieved some notable
enterprise. Said to represent the rooftree of a house, and has
sometimes been given to those who have built churches or fortresses
or who have accomplished some work of faithful service.
Cross Crosslet:
Signifies the fourfold mystery of the cross.
Are you looking for heraldic clip
art?
People always ask me where to get heraldic clip art for designing
coats of arms. There really is only one place,
Armorial Gold Clip art.
Nobody else even comes close. The art in this newsletter is designed
using Armorial Gold clip art.
All Armorial Gold art is in
WMF vector format which means it can be reduced and enlarged without
loss of quality. You can even use it to start your own heraldry
business. There are over 6,000 images in the Heraldry Art collection
including blank shields and mantlings so that you can design your
own coats of arms.
There are thousands of images available. It's fun to just browse
through their online catalog and look at the beautiful heraldic
artwork.
Hop over there right now and take a
look!
Armorial Gold Clipart
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