[CHAPTER VIII]
SUPPORTERS
The probable Origin of Supporters; Quasi-Supporters; True Supporters: their Introduction; Supporters of Crested Helms; Pairs of Supporters; Dissimilar Supporters; The use of Supporters by Ladies; Other ways of supporting Shields.
The misuse of crests to which reference has been made unfortunately does not stand alone, for modern artists are quite as much at fault with regard to the proper treatment of supporters.
There can be little doubt that these charming adjuncts to heraldic compositions originated with the seal engravers, in their desire to fill up the vacant space in a round seal between the shield and its surrounding margin. In the oldest examples this was done by adding scrollwork or leafage, but in the seal of Humphrey Bohun earl of Hereford, 1220, the large shield of his arms is flanked by two smaller shields of his other earldom of Essex. The same treatment occurs in the seal of his grandson, another Humphrey Bohun earl of Hereford and Essex, 1298-1322 (pl. [XIX] B). Henry de Laci (1257) has the side spaces filled by two small wivers, and in the seal of Stephen Longespee (ob. 1260) the shield is flanked by two long swords (pl. [XIX] A). Gilbert of Clare earl of Gloucester (1262) has his shield hung on a peg and accompanied by two lions back to back, while in the seal of Edmund earl of Cornwall (1272) and son of Richard king of the Romans the shield is held up in the beak of an imperial eagle splayed or spread out behind it. Thomas earl of Lancaster (1296) on both his larger and his lesser seals has the shield flanked by two wivers, as has also his brother Henry of Lancaster (1298) (fig. [60]).
Sometimes the shield is hung about the neck of a bird (fig. [113]), or about a beast, as in the seal of Alan la Souche, which likewise has the shield surrounded by a number of lions (fig. [114]).
Fig. 113. Seal of John de Moun with the shield slung from an eagle and flanked by two leopards. From the Barons' Letter.