Sea-dog
is depicted like a talbot in shape, but with the tail like that of a beaver, the feet webbed and the whole body scaled like a fish, a scalloped fin continued along the back from the head to the tail.
Baron Stourton has two such beasts, sable, scaled or, for his supporters.
The crest of Sir H. Delves Broughton.—A sea-dog’s head gules, eared and finned argent.
Sea-dog rampant.
The Sea-bull, Sea-wolf, Sea-bear, Sea-cat, Sea-dragon, etc., when they occur in heraldry, are all depicted as having the anterior portions of their bodies in the forms which their several names denote; but, like the sea-lion and sea-horse, they have fishes tails and webbed paws.
In conclusion, having, as far as possible, given the raison d’être of each, and traced the life-history and characteristics of the many strange and fantastic creatures in our symbolic menagerie, it only remains to express the hope that the information contained in this volume may be found both interesting and useful, as without some such knowledge there can be little or no intelligent understanding of the proper treatment of the forms of these mythical and symbolic beings. The suggestive illustrations, while giving the recognised forms of each, leaves to the artist free scope to adopt his own style of art treatment, whether purely heraldic or merely decorative.
Printed by Ballantyne & Co. Limited
Tavistock Street, London
Footnotes:
[1] “Decorative Heraldry,” by G. W. Eve.
[2] The above notes on heraldic treatment are largely adapted from the admirable works on Decorative Art, by Louis F. Day.
[3] See Audsley’s “Glossary of Architecture,” “Angel,” p. 101.
[4] “Restit. of Decayed Intell. in Antiq.” p. 147.
[5] “Great Cities of the Middle Ages.”
[6] “History of Signboards.”
[7] Brewer’s “Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.”
[8] “Analysis of Ornament,” by Ralph N. Wornum.
[9] That is, Visconti is only a variation of Biscia equivalent to Anguis, Italianised to Angleria.
[10] Pliny, Book xi. ch. 25, from an old translation.
[11] But for an oversight in the drawing, the unicorn should have been represented with the divided hoofs of a stag.
[12] “Mythology of Greece and Rome, with special reference to its Use in Art,” from the German of O. Seemann.
[13] W. N. Humphry’s “Coin Collector’s Manual.”
[14] “Modern Painters,” vol. iii. ch. 8.
[15] “Historical Devices, Badges, and War Cries,” p. 10.
[16] “Iconography of Christian Art.”
[17] “Orlando Furioso,” iv. 18, 19.
[18] “Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians.”
[19] W. Noel Humphry’s “Coin Collector’s Manual.”
[20] Book x. ch. 2.
[21] Guillam’s “Display of Heraldry.” The same is also related in the Latin “Bestiarium,” Harl. MSS. 4751; and by Albertus Magnus, Camerarius, &c.
[22] “Cassell’s Natural History.”
[23] Bk. viii. ch. 17.
[24] Harl. MSS. 6085.
[25] Hist. Dev. 260.
[26] “Natural History,” x. 67, xxix. 4.
[27] Tylor’s “Primitive Culture.”
[28] Armorie of Honour, 62.
[29] “Coin Collector’s Manual,” Bohn.
[30] Book ix. ch. 13.
[31] The sign was also used by printers: John Rastall, brother-in-law to Sir Thomas More, “emprynted in the Cheapesyde at the Sygne of the Mermayde; next to Powlsgate in 1572.” Henry Binnemann, the Queen’s printer, dedicated a work to Sir Thomas Gresham, in 1576, at the sign of the Mermaid, Knightrider Street. A representation of the creature was generally prefixed to his books.—“History of Sign-boards,” p. 227.