Nos. 35, 42, and 43.
No. 35—Egg-shaped may be regarded very much as a variation of No. 32, some artists considering it more graceful and better adapted to hold the arms and leave less of the field vacant. The shield of Edward the Black Prince, preserved at Canterbury, and already noticed at p. 30, was of this shape. He died 1376 (Bolton's Elements, p. 67).
But there is a large number of such seals as may be described egg-shaped, with hollowed-out sides, and frequently framed in scrolls; these are classed as cardioid Nos. 42 and 43, the outlines having been altered by scroll work, although sometimes the scrolls are omitted.
These occur in Divi Britannici, by Sir Winston Churchill, 1675;
In monuments of 1684, &c., in Blomefield's Norfolk;
And of 1699, Miscell. Genealogica et Heraldica for December, 1884, p. 185;
Again in 1715, Herald and Genealogist, vol. ii, p. 230; and they are constantly to be found in monumental tablets.
Very frequently the bases of shields with hollowed-out sides are turned either to dexter or sinister, as noticed in seals throughout the eighteenth century; and in some later Jacobean, and in Chippendale book-plates say from 1720 to nearly the end of the century.
| Seal of Bartlett of Marldon and Exeter, co. Devon (Miscell. Genealogica et Heraldica for June, 1887). | Seal of Joseph Palmer, King's Messenger: born 1683, died 1759 (Miscell. Genealogica et Heraldica, second series, vol. i, p. 86). |
| Seal of Michael Grazebrooke of Audnam: born 1723, died 1766 (Miscell. Gen. et Heraldica for 1878). | Seal of Joseph Siket to his will, 1758 (Herald and Genealogist, vol. iii, p. 316; also vol. vi, p. 211.) |