My readers will also refer to that very interesting seal of Richard Basset, about 1145, described at p. 13, and No. 44: it is heart-shaped, greatly lengthened out.
A very curious heart-shaped shield, with the point turned round and scrolled, appears in the wooden effigy to one of the family of Oglander in Brading Church, Isle of Wight. This is supposed to be of sixteenth century. It is engraved in the Anastatic Drawing Society's vol. for 1883.
A curious instance of the recrudescence of early forms occurs when Sylvanus Morgan, vol. i, p. 27, places the arms of one Gill in a triangular shield, such as we noticed in the thirteenth century, and figured No. 1 in the sheet.
Again, heater-pear shields, No. 6, frequently occur in early monuments, as they accorded well with the style of decoration—see the monument to Henry Willoughby, 1581, at Wollaton (Thoroton's Notts, p. 27); also that to Richard Mansfield, 1624, at West Lake Church (Thoroton, p. 27); also that to Thomas Atkinson, 1661, at Newark-on-Trent (Thoroton, p. 200); also in a monument to the Clifton family, about 1670, engraved p. 61 in the same book.
It would be possible to give much more fully the exacter history of several of these shields, showing their various slight variations prevailing at different dates, but such would extend my "attempt" beyond a convenient length.
I have, however, selected one of the most common occurrence, feeling sure that its history will therefore be the more interesting. In A Glossary of Terms used in British Heraldry, published by Parker, Oxford, 1847, the date 1724 is given as the "earliest shield that has been noticed of this tasteless, though still prevalent form," No. 81.
Now, here is the exact sequence with the small variations which I have been able to trace:—