Heraldry as art: An account of its development and practice, chiefly in England

by G. W. Eve

Fig. 264.

Fig. 265.

Fig. 266.

Fig. 267.

Knots.—A form of badge that is composed of one or more cords or straps twisted into open knots and used to symbolize the bond of a vow. The best known, perhaps, is the Stafford knot (Fig. 264), which from being the badge of the Earls of Stafford has been appropriated by many institutions connected with that county. The Heneage knot, also on a single line, is Fig. 265, and is sometimes accompanied by the motto, “Fast though untied,” and Fig. 266 is the Bowen knot of four bows. Fig. 267 is from among the devices on the robe of the effigy of Anne of Bohemia on her tomb at Westminster Abbey, and is thought by Boutell to convey the idea of a monogram. He also sees in the Wake and Ormond knot (Fig. 268) the initials W and O entwined. A modern attempt was made to form a monogram of the silken tags represented as depending from the seal shape of the bookplate (by C. W. Sherborn, R.E.) of the celebrated J. Robinson Planché, Dramatist and Somerset Herald.