The Curiosities of Heraldry

by Mark Antony Lower

The antiquity of crests for the uses above referred to, is far greater than that of the introduction of heraldry. The helmets of the divinities and heroes of the classical era are thus decorated. The owl on that of Minerva may be cited as an example. Jupiter Ammon is represented as having borne, as a crest, a ram’s head, which Alexander the Great adopted in token of his pretended descent from that deity. The use of crests by antient warriors is alluded to by Phædrus in his fable of the battle of the mice and weasels, where the generals of the former party are represented as wearing horns fastened to their heads:

“Ut conspicuum in prælio
Haberent signum quod sequerentur milites.”
Fab. LIII.

In heraldry, the adoption of crests is modern compared with that of coat-armour,[168] and many families at the present time have no crests. This is easily accounted for. We have seen that they were at first used exclusively by commanders. In time, however, the spirit of imitation led persons of inferior rank to assume those of their feudal superiors; and hence far less regularity is found in the heraldry of crests than in that of coat-armour. In many cases crests have been borrowed from one or other of the charges of the shield: hence if the coat contain a lion rampant, the crest is frequently a demi, or half lion, or a lion’s head; and should three or six eagles occupy the shield, another eagle often serves as a crest.

With respect to the material of which the actual crests were composed, some assert that it was leather, or pasteboard stiffened and varnished, to preserve it from the wet; but the few that I have had an opportunity of inspecting are composed of more substantial materials. Thus the crest of one of the Echingham family, ‘a demi-lion rampant,’ on a helmet preserved in Echingham church, co. Sussex, is of wood, and that of a knight of the Pelham family in Laughton church, in the same county, ‘a peacock in his pride,’ is of iron.

The crests engraved at the head of this chapter have been selected on account of their singularity.[169]

The flourished ornament behind the crest, and which is often made to encompass the entire armorial insignia, was originally either a mantle of estate, worn when the warrior was not actually engaged in battle, and tinctured of the metal and colour of his arms,[170] or from the lambrequin, a small piece of cloth or silk employed to protect the helmet from rain, as well as to prevent the polished steel from dazzling the eyes of the spectator. The jags and flourishes are conjectured to represent the cuts which a valiant knight would receive in battle; and hence the extravagant fashion of painting these mantlings was probably intended as a compliment to the prowess of the bearer.

Supporters are those figures which stand on each side of the escocheon, and appear to support, or hold it up. In Latin blazon they are termed Talamones and Atlantes, and in French supports or tenans. As crests are more recent than coat-armour, so supporters are of later date than crests.

Menestrier, the great classic of French heraldric literature, deduces the origin of supporters from the antient tournaments, at which it was customary for the knights who engaged in those chivalrous exercises to have shields of their arms adorned with helmets, mantlings, wreaths, crests, and other ornamental appendages suspended near the lists. These were guarded by pages and armour-bearers fantastically attired as Saracens, Moors, Giants, and Mermaids, or disguised with skins to resemble lions, bears, and other animals. The figures adopted in this kind of masquerade became afterwards the supporters of the family achievement.

As I have not had the good fortune to read Menestrier’s work, and only know it through quotations, I am unable to ascertain by what arguments and proofs his hypothesis is strengthened; but I may be allowed to express my doubts as to this picturesque origin of supporters. The account of it given by Anstis, in his Aspilogia, appears to me to be far more probable:

“As to supporters, they were (I take it) the invention of the graver, who, in cutting, on seals, shields of arms, which were in a triangular form and placed on a circle, finding a vacant place at each side and also at the top of the shield, thought it an ornament to fill up the spaces with vine branches, garbs, trees, flowers, plants, ears of corn, feathers, fretwork, lions, wiverns, or some other animals, according to their fancy.[171]