An Tir College of Heralds: Armorial Exemplars

Greetings all from Senhora Rafaella.

This project was started to encourage period armory through examples from Fosters and Brault. Many are taken directly from the armorials, others are derivative (colors or charges changed to keep the overall balance of the project. Some devices changed as I am best with geometric and simple charges.) The point of the project is to show core SCA armorial style (13th-14th c. English and French). This certainly isn't the only style I think we should emulate, but I wanted to start someplace. The art isn't great, but then neither are period armorials.

There are 48 shields on 4 lengths of cheap weatherized rubbery fabric (7yards cut in half lengthwise and 4x widthwise). The shields are approx. 15" high and 12" wide at the top. I made a template out of cardboard and drew the shields and designs with a black permanent marker pen. The tinctures were colored in with thinned acrylic paint (liquitex pro and artist grades). The paint is fairly thin and sometimes sheer so the banners can roll up without cracking the paint. The shields are oriented at the bottom of the fabric so the top edge can be tucked under the lip of a pavilion or tacked up on walls or tucked under tablecloths. The blazon of each shield is written under the shield's lower sinister side. The whole project took about a month of evenings in and amongst other projects.

Here's the debut of the exemplars at An Tir's Kingdom Heraldic Symposium 2003 held in the Barony of Stromgard, April 12, 2003.


Black Stag Herald, Lady Muirgheal (Morel) inghean Labhrain.


The consult table at Kingdom Heraldic Symposium 2003.
Close-up number 1.


Close-up number 2.


Close-up number 3.

Thanks to Signora Francesca dei Martini for her painting participation.
Photos courtesy: Lord Guillermo di Francesco (Seagirt Pursuivant).


SCA Herald's office badge: Vert, two crossed trumpets Or. Back to the An Tir College of Heralds

This is the web site of the An Tir College of Heralds of the Society of Creative Anachronism, Inc.
It is not a corporate publication of the Society for Creative Anachronism, Incorporated, and does not delineate SCA policies.

Updated: April 17, 2003