No. 407.— Seal of Earl Edmund de Mortimer; A.D. 1400.
Numerous examples of great interest illustrate the early introduction of Badges into the composition of Seals, as accessories of Shields. A Seal of Prince John of Ghent, which has two falcons and padlocks, is one of the most beautiful and suggestive works of its class: in this Seal the two birds are addorsed, and consequently they also have their backs turned towards the central achievement. This position of the figures on early Seals is not uncommon; but it is an illustration that the use of Badges in the form from which they developed into supporters was an artistic necessity, arising from the form of the spaces to be occupied by the figures upon the Seal. Another most characteristic example of that marshalling of Badges upon Seals, which certainly led the way to true Supporters, is the Seal of Sir Maurice de Berkeley, A.D. 1430, upon which a mermaid—the Berkeley badge—is blazoned on each side of the Shield. The two figures are drawn with much skill and elegance. The Shield itself quarters Berkeley within a bordure, and a differenced coat of Bottetourt: it hangs from a large helm, which, in its turn, is ensigned by as large a mitre—the singular Crest of the Berkeleys. The two figures, generally animals, which fill up the spaces to the dexter and sinister of the central achievement on Seals, in the fifteenth century are almost invariably drawn of a comparatively large size; and, for the most part, they really act as Supporters to the Crested Helm, being themselves supported by the Shield. The composition of the Seal of Edmund de Mortimer, Earl of March, A.D. 1400, though now mutilated, exhibits in a most satisfactory manner this very effective arrangement, from which true Supporters to a Shield of Arms might obviously be derived. In this Seal, No. 407, the Shield quarters Mortimer, [No. 131], and—or, a cross gu., for Ulster. The Seal of Wm. de Wyndesor, [No. 382], illustrates with no less happy effect the occasional use of birds instead of beasts, as Supporting Badges. Other examples exist in great numbers, and in abundant variety: the two that I add from Mr. Laing’s Volume, Nos. 408 and 409, are in every respect most characteristic; they are severally the Seals of Robert Graham, of Kinpont, and of Sir William Lindsay, of the Byres.
| No. 408.— Seal of Robert Graham, of Kinpont, A.D. 1433. | No. 409.— Seal of Sir Wm. Lindsay, of the Byres, A.D. 1390. |
It is scarcely necessary for me to point out to students that Supporters always have a decided heraldic significance. In supporting a Shield of Arms, they discharge an heraldic duty: but, in themselves, Supporters are armorial symbols of a high rank; and, with peculiar emphasis, they record descent, inheritance, and alliance, and they blazon illustrious deeds.
Supporters should always be represented in an erect position. In whatever direction also they actually may be looking, they always ought to appear to fulfil their own proper office of giving vigilant and deferential support to the Shield. It would be well, in our blazoning of supported Achievements, not only for us to regard a becoming position and attitude for Supporters to be matters determined by positive heraldic law, but also that some satisfactory arrangement should be made and recognised for general adoption, by which an equally becoming support would be provided for “Supporters.” An unsatisfactory custom has been either to place the Supporters, whatever they may be, upon some very slight renaissance scroll work that is neither graceful nor consistent, or, to constrain the Motto scroll to provide a foundation or standing-place for them. In the latter case, an energetic lion, or a massive elephant, and, in a certain class of achievements of comparatively recent date, a mounted trooper, or a stalwart man-of-war’s man, probably with a twenty-four pounder at his feet, are made to stand on the edge of the ribbon that is inscribed with the Motto. Mr. Laing has enabled me to give an excellent example of Supporters—two lions standing upon a motto-scroll or ribbon—in No. 410, the Seal of John Drummond, created Earl of Melfort and Viscount Forth in the year 1686: the Shield is Scotland, within a bordure componée; the Supporters are gorged with collars charged with thistles; and the Crest is the Crest of Scotland issuing from a celestial Crown. As says the Motto of Sir William Mahon, “Moniti, meliora sequamur”—now that we have been told of it, let us produce something better than this support for our Supporters. Happily the best heraldic artists of the moment seem very generally to have reverted to the older and more preferable form.
No. 410.— Seal of John Drummond, Earl of Melfort, A.D. 1686.
The Heralds of France still restrict the term “Supporters”—“Les Supports”—to animals; whilst to human beings, to figures of angels, and to mythological personages or other figures in human form, when supporting a Shield, they apply the term “Les Tenants.” When trees or other inanimate objects are placed beside any armorial shield, and so discharge the duty of Supporters in French achievements, they are distinguished as “Les Soutiens.” An old French writer on Heraldry, Palliot, however, says that in his time (A.D. 1660), Tenant is used in the singular number, and denotes any kind of single Supporter, while Supports is used when there are two.