Fig. 30. Seal of Peter de Mauley IV (from the Barons' Letter), showing a simple well-balanced shield.
Another point that may be noticed in all old work is that in shields containing several similar objects no two are exactly alike. If the charges be, for example, three roses or three roundels or three lions (fig. [32]), two will be placed in the upper and the third in the lower part of the shield. But the latter will often be somewhat larger than the others, and these, in turn, will differ slightly the one from the other as they do in nature. So, too, in a case like the three leopards of the King of England, whether displayed on shield or in banner, no two are exactly alike, but each differs somewhat from another in pose or in size (fig. [32]). Even when the same charge is repeated many times, like the fleurs-de-lis in the old arms of France, any possible chance of mechanical monotony is avoided by a trifling variation in the shape of each, as in the shield of the King of France in the early series at Westminster (fig. [34]).
Another fact is that in the old work lines and curves are hardly ever quite true, but drawn by hand instead of with pen or compasses. The modern artist, on the contrary, usually draws his lines and curves with mechanical precision; his charges are exact copies one of another; the fact that they do not fill the field (pace the royal arms on the coinage) is to him quite unimportant, and the final result is that under no circumstances will his work look well. Even in old stencilling a pleasing effect never seen in modern work of the kind was produced through a not too rigid adherence to a regularity of application.
Fig. 31. Shield with a bend counter-flowered, from the brass of Sir Thomas Bromfleet (1430) at Wymington, Beds.
