Grotesque shields, somewhat of this shape, are given to Ancient Britons, as in Speed's Theatre of Great Britain, 1676, and in MS. pedigrees of early seventeenth century, for the arms of Welsh princes and early potentates. Randle Holme (Academy of Armoury) gives one of these as from the monument of Mahomet, Emperor of Turkey, and another from the monument of Tamerlane, Emperor of Tartaria.
Nos. 40 and 41 actually do occur frequently in Roman bronzes and monuments, and are reproduced in engravings in Bolton's Elements of Armories, 1610, p. 147, &c. Bolton explains that it (41) occurs on the Column to Antoninus at Rome, but later discoveries have shown that this column was really erected to Marcus Aurelius Antoninus in 174 A.D.
Nos. 42 and 43 cardioid shields (see the remarks upon 33, 34 and 35).—I think these arose from the decorative scroll-work placed around egg-shaped shields, and especially in late Jacobean and Chippendale times, when they may be found in monuments and book-plates. The earliest mural tablet I have noticed is dated 1699, at Winchester Cathedral. This is engraved Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica for December, 1884, p. 185.
The engravings in Divi Britannici, noticed under the variations of 35, nearly approach these.
Instances of pure heart-shaped shields occur in the brass to Willem Wenemaer, slain 1325. This is in the vestibule to the hospital which he founded at Ghent (Archæological Journal, vol. vii, p. 287);
Also in a monument at St. Margaret's, Hertford, 1691-2, shown in the annexed illustration. This is from Miscell. Geneal. et Heraldica, January, 1887, p. 197; and the shape may also be found at later dates.