It becomes very frequent 1783-92, and up to 1806 in monuments and book-plates—see page 56.
The shield is used in a work published at Worcester 1795, Historical Anecdotes of Heraldry and Chivalry.
Very many of the bulky seals so common during the last thirty years of the eighteenth century display coats of arms on shields of this shape, which seems to have been much used about this date. The Liverpool halfpenny, 1791, see No. 78; the Leeds halfpenny, 1791; and the Cronebane halfpenny, 1789; and no doubt many other copper tokens show No. 25.
No. 26 is figured by Randle Holme (Academy of Armoury, 1688), who took it from Sylvanus Morgan's Sphere of Gentry, 1661. He explains it is from old and decayed monuments. It is really adapted from ancient shields, which were used by the Amazons, and they are constantly represented with such shields and with double-headed battle axes on Greek coins (see Petiti de Amazonibus Dissertatio, 1687, p. 180, &c.)
The only change noticeable in these shields is that the Stuart, which extended down to certainly as late as 1694, have perpendicular sides,—with an occasional exception, as that quoted 1625,—while in the Georgian the sides are always more or less bulged out.
Nos. 27, 28, 29, and 30, with which may conveniently be taken the tops, designated "eared couped."
No. 27—This shape occurs in Brussels tapestry, dated 1610. The sides are more hollowed-out, and the ears more projected (Jacquemart's History of Furniture, p. 102, English translation).
Very frequently in ledger tombs, 1718, 1749, 1750, and in 1680 (see Miscell. Genealogica et Heraldica, November, 1884, p. 172).