Tails

From SCA Heraldry Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

WARNING: Do not cite this page as a reference. This page is on this wikispace only to make the content "searchable" and easier to find. If you find the information you seek here, go to the original sources to verify the information and use them for your documentation.


Illustrations:[edit | edit source]

Period:[edit | edit source]


An Ordinary of Siebmacher's Wappenbuch[edit | edit source]

Modern:[edit | edit source]

Pictorial Dictionary, 3rd edition:[edit | edit source]

  • Tail - "A tail is the caudal appendage of some beast, bird, or monster, used as a separate charge in its own right. The type of creature must be specified in the blazon; period armory has examples of lion’s tails (in the arms of Pynchebek, c.1460 [RH]) and fox’s tails (the badge of Thomas of Woodstock, d.1397 [HB 104]). Society armory has examples of dragon’s tails and yak’s tails, among others. Tails are palewise and erased by default; while most tails (notably lions’ queues) have the severed end to base, other tails (such as the fox’s tail) must be explicitly blazoned. The term “queue” refers specifically to a lion’s tail. It may be “fourchy” (forked), or “nowed” (knotted), just as though attached to the lion."

Vector Graphics:[edit | edit source]


Pennsic Traceable Art Project[edit | edit source]

Sources:[edit | edit source]

Academy of St. Gabriel "Medieval Heraldry Archive" - >http://www.s-gabriel.org/heraldry/

Archive of St. Gabriel reports - http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/archive.cgi

Laurel Armory Articles - http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/armory_articles.html

New Heraldic Primer (Heraldry for Non-Heralds) - http://heraldry.sca.org/armory/newprimer/

Pictorial Dictionary of Heraldry (PicDic), 3rd Edition - http://mistholme.com/pictorial-dictionary-of-heraldry

Period Armorials

Parker's Heraldry - http://karlwilcox.com/parker/

Riestap's Armorial Général - http://www.euraldic.com/lasu/bl/bl_a_aa.html


Precedents:[edit | edit source]

Precedents of the SCA College of Arms - http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/precedents.html

Morsulus Heralds Website - http://www.morsulus.org/ (to search the LoARs and Precedents)

Use the above links to be sure any precedents listed below haven't been superseded by newer precedents.

Definition:[edit | edit source]

October 2000 - weasel vs ferret tail:[edit | edit source]

Blazoned on the LoI as ferrets, the creatures on the emblazon do not have ferret's tails, which are narrow with a tuft at the end. Instead, these creatures have the thick fuzzy tail of the weasel. As there is an artistic if not heraldic difference, we have changed the blazon to match the emblazon. [Donatien Delaborde, 10/00, A-Ansteorra] http://heraldry.sca.org/precedents/elsbeth/armory.html


Registerability:[edit | edit source]

(Restricted, Reserved, SFPP, OOP)

>May 1994 - conjoined at the tails:[edit | edit source]

[Returning Or, three wolves passant regardant conjoined by the tail in pall within an annulet gules.] "There were no period exemplars of either beasts conjoined at the tails or for this type of rotational symmetry to which any of the commenters could point. All of the tricorporate beasts we could find had a single head; conjoining at the tails does not appear to be period style." May 1994 LoAR

Conflict:[edit | edit source]

May 2005 - tincture of mermaid tails:[edit | edit source]

Elise l'Éstrange. Name and device. Azure, a mermaid proper crined Or maintaining in her dexter hand a shamshir proper and in her sinister hand a gemstone gules, on a chief argent three crescents gules. This device does not conflict with Camilla de la Reynarde la Droitière, Azure, a blonde mermaid proper, tailed argent, maintaining in each hand a garden rose gules, on a chief argent, three foxes passant gules. There is a CD for changing the tincture of half the mermaid and another for substantially changing the type of the tertiaries under RfS X.4.j.ii. Our practice has been to ignore maintained charges when defining a device as simple armory for the purposes of this rule and RfS X.2. http://heraldry.sca.org/loar/2005/05/05-05lar.html

November 2003 - tails nowed:[edit | edit source]

"Lions' tails, when nowed, are generally blazoned as such, although this distinction is not worth difference" November 2003 LoAR

November 2003 - quadruped vs fish-tailed:[edit | edit source]

"As a general rule, there is a CD between a quadruped (or quadrupedal monster) and a fish-tailed demi-quadruped." 2003 LoAR


Identifiability:[edit | edit source]

Collected Precedents:[edit | edit source]


The Ordinary :[edit | edit source]