Strange Period Devices

What is it? You tell us! Welcome to the wild side of medieval heraldry.

See also Animals in Clothes

==Italian complexity

Chicken-head, rose involved, Italian complexity

BSB Cgm 145, Das Wappenbuch Conrads von Grünenberg, 1480, folio 212, chicken-head	Siebmacher 1605, a rose slipped and involved.	From one of the 1550s Italian Insignia.

Moon-star, herring barrel with lilies, stringer of fish and fleurs

https://scontent-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10431558_10205847119079101_6811472409039882429_n.jpg?oh=251f1ec94fe925583a6b9fd0bb8deb55&oe=55C7B0C1	https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpt1/v/t1.0-9/10247370_10205847119519112_5619664147148443228_n.jpg?oh=a11ee5dcd0edf1f4a06fc867f61cee59&oe=55E40A8D&gda=1440752772_4960259e24a0676f5e377a90a6c93678	https://scontent-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/11043015_10205847119919122_4506321123448156180_n.jpg?oh=e4e89a4f4260dee5041852ac6698fea3&oe=55DB7721
Siebmacher 1605?, moon-star, FB image courtesy of Rayne Evynwod.	Siebmacher 1605, herring barrel with lilies, FB image courtesy of Rayne Evynwod.	Siebmacher 1605, stringer of fish and fleurs, FB image courtesy of Rayne Evynwod.

Skinny chevrons, dogs on ladder, twisted limbs

https://scontent-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/11048280_10205847119759118_1872855786509165873_n.jpg?oh=8f3d9e41840a6306a794ee7b9c62f464&oe=55C4F1B5	https://scontent-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10926214_10205847119399109_3398552211984847258_n.jpg?oh=b608edc2237d651ca7fd61b645b11dec&oe=55CAB800	https://scontent-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/11060046_10205847123679216_409762585341144948_n.jpg?oh=17ac641ab24e0955cd44eb29ac031d5a&oe=55CFF11A
Siebmacher 1605, skinny chevrons on a skinny pale (vergette), FB image courtesy of Rayne Evynwod.	Siebmacher 1605, dogs on a ladder, FB image courtesy of Rayne Evynwod.	Siebmacher 1605, a redorte (stylized twisted branches), FB image courtesy of Rayne Evynwod

Bellenville Oddities

6v is an unusual rendition of a trivet. It's kinda cool. 29v I wanted to be a caterpillar involved, but I think it's a wing. Dunno how to blazon it. 33v is a nice, butch set of three sewing needles. 37r is a set of three garbs that are so stylized they feel like modern graphics. 41v is a weird mill-wheel. There were other, more normal mill wheels and regular wheels (I also liked the wheels with an axle, spoke, but the outer ring of the annulet invected). 42r Turbot. The arms are canting on Both van der Eeme, in a rare case of a cant on the given name. 43r Upside down ermine spots is weird. 50r-1 "Barry embowed to base gules and Or"? Demi-gurges? 50r-2 Curule chair? nut cracker? Per Bruce Draconarius: arms of vanden Wolde or von dem Wolde. Popoff and Pastoureau identify the charge as a "tréteau de table" - a table trestle 50r-3 They look like stick pins? anvils from above? probably empty spindles or yarn quills 50r-4 These could be hats or the head of a pole weapon. 55v Spiders could be a cant on COBham, but Rietstep thinks they're estoiles. 60v a turning cratch? quintin? Per Bruce Draconarius: Polish armory per Popoff and Pastoureau, in their edition of Bellenville, cite this as the arms of Jan Bielik, and blazon it (translating from the French) as "Gules, a Tau atop a point of three steps, the ends of the cross pieces garnished with a demi-roundel, all Or." 68v A hay rick. This is the first medieval one I think I've seen unless Bruce dug one out the last time we were discussing haystacks

Bellenville Armorial, 1355-1380, English

Industrial metal pan, strange celestial arms

Armorial	Insignia
Armorial of the Brotherhood of St. Christopher, c. 1420, ore sluice? chisel mold? cheese-making tray? grain funnel?	Insignia Venetorum, BSB 272, 1550-55, strange celestial Fabrizii arms (upper right and lower left), Or on argent (lower right)

Wounds x2, threatening lion

		Book
Nurnberg 1555, attributed arms of King Gog of Magog, wounds!	Sammelband, BSB391, 1530, attributed arms of King Gog of Magog, more wounds	Book of Attire of the Court of Duke William IV and Albert V of Bavaria, 1508 - 1551, lion on chair unsheathing (?) a sword

Vairy/scaly metal on metal, lion herissony?, exploding head

c.1558	Armorial	BSB272,
c.1558 Universeel Wapenboek, KM1080, scaly vs. vair? argent on argent?	Armorial le Breton, 13th-15th C., lion herissony?	BSB272, Insignia Venetorum Nobilium, 1550-55, Frabrizii arms - 1) sun, 2) old gray man = ?, 3) sun from behind? sunburst?

Strange wings x2, demi-owl displayed

16th	16th	Zacharias
16th century Italian, wings counterchanged, position?	16th cent. Italian flipper wings?	Zacharias Bartsch, 1567, f38r, demi-owl displayed, pink?

Monstrous canton, dust bunny

1506-1509	Zurich
1506-1509 Livro do Armeiro-Mor, 134v, barry indented and a huge canton	Zurich Roll, c1340, #237, furison and "dust bunny" crest

Multicolored roundels, corn dogs, tesselated bears

Insignia	Siebmacher	Wappen
Insignia pontificum Romanorum et cardinalium II, 1550-55, BSB 267, f239r, cornucopias in saltire and multi-tinctured roundels	Siebmacher - Schenk, Kolbe. Bullrushes? Cattails? Hams? Maces? Flower cobs?	Wappen de Hans Burgkmair der Ältere, 1516 German, tessellated bears

Scalloped roundel, zero contrast, cornice

File:BSB278 f94r scallopedroundel.jpg	Insignia	Stemmario
Not quite a roundel scalloped?	Insignia Anglica BSB 291, f28v, zero contrast cross. Dictionary of British Arms; Medieval Ordinary, Volume three, page 202, under "Patterned field 1 plain cross plain border" is Arg fretty Gu cross Arg border Sa, for one Sir Hew Bryce, from WK (Writhe's Book of Knights, temp. Henry VII)	Stemmario Trivulziano, Milanese, c.1450, f64, cornice. The Cornice

Monk in crown, tierce nebuly

Siebmacher	Chief
Siebmacher 1605, plate 67, crown and monk. Sometimes you wear the crown and sometimes the crown wears you.	Chief of allegiance to? Tierce nebuly? (and, of course, red on blue)

Silly clown, funny hat

File:Arlberg 1548 knave.jpg

Ortenburger |

Per the Neustifter Wappenbuch these are the arms of Reyssmaull, with the blazon: "In Rot wachsender silbern gekleideter Knabe mit silberner Kappe mit linker schwarzer Feder darauf, der mit beiden H{a:}nden die offenen Lippen waagrecht fletscht." Which may translate into "Gules, a boy argent rising (issuant? demi?) capped argent with a black feather in the cap to sinister, with both hands stretching his parted lips fesswise."

Turban? Judenhutt? Devo?

Sinister chevrons, corpse on a bier

	Siebmacher,
On a pile inverted issuant from sinister argent a pile issuant from sinister sable vs A pile inverted from sinister sable fimbriated argent?
*Per chevron inverted couched from sinister chief gules and sable, a chevron inverted couched from sinister chief argent* See: [[1]]	Corpse on a bier/table/coffin (coffin meaning something different now than then?)

Film reels, egg poacher, hand mill

Zacharias	File:ZachariasBartsch1567 dievonHolnecth.jpg	Manesse
Film reels? Guide wheel? Norse cross wheel? Host? Monstrous? Lotus root? Or as Riestap calls it, "De gueules, à la croix pattée alésée d'argent, sommée d'un croissant figuré montant du même." = cross paty pierced argent (the same thing as a cross formy) with the enlarged ends of the arms conjoined.	Mirror per Riestap? Aebelskiver pan? Egg poacher? Sedar dish? A baker's peel with manchets?	Hand mill viewed from above

Lilies tents, butter churn, hinges?

Zacharias	Zacharias
Pavilions issuant from sinister	Butterchurn in the crest. Loaves of bread or lozenges on the bend sinister?	Most likely hinges with the holes and break in the middle, but also resemble zules or chess rooks conjoined in base.

Swallow-tailed sun, passant over rampant, half-arrows

	Scheibler'sches	Zacharias
A roundel embattled of swallow-tailed merlons as a mark of Ghibelline allegiance? A sun with swallow-tailed rays eclipsed azure and charged with a castle or a bridge of two towers?	Passant over rampant? Or just rampants drawn funny to fill the space?	Arrows between demi-arrows?

Gyronny fimbriated, annulet counterchanged over gyronny

	BSB
"Gyronny of 8 gules and azure fimbriated Or" vs "Gyronny of 8 gules and azure, a fillet cross and fillet saltire Or" vs ?	Not necessarily SCA-legal, depending on the blazon. A roundel counter-changed charged with roundel gules charged with wing argent - would constitute 4 layers, non-registerable. A roundel gules fimbriated counterchanged charged with a wing argent - would be 3 layers.

Feather duster, mutant maunch, pommeled at the foot

Wappenbuch	Wappenbuch	Wappenbuch
Feather duster? Feather fan? Cotton ball? Palm tree? Artichoke/thistle?	A maunch? Mutant flaunch? A demi-fleur?	A cross formy double-pommeled at the foot?

Pommerian rune/cross

Siebmacher,

Siebmacher, Plate 12, Bishop of Chamin (Cammin)

Pommerian rune, Camminer cross, cross of Cammin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishopric_of_Cammin http://www.armorial.dk/german/Richental.pdf "an inverted F superimposed on a T" " a Tau cross with the sinister cross-limb folded downward at the end, and the lower limb conjoined to a potent in dexter"

Italian moustaches, bones, nails, crutches

Bonaldo - moustaches? brackets? flint steels? horseshoes? spurs without the pokey bit? and note the orientation! Bonanisegna #1 - Gules semy of bones? scrolls?, three bendlets argent. Bonanisegna #2 - Bendy gules and argent, semy of passion nails (spear heads?) sable Bonanisegna #3 - Gules semy of crutches (stirrups? spurs?), three bendlets argent.

Firedogs, bolt, electron field

Sammelband		Wappenbuch
Firedogs	Bolt (canting name)<	Electron field? Oil press? Pestle? Double-handed pigment grinder? Lace bobbin?

Hamster wheel, sausage grinder, stop sign

File:Bellenville f70 14thC.jpg	Wappenbuch	Wappenbuch
Medieval winch? Hamster/dog wheel? Ships wheel? Yarn winder? Wind mill?	Horizontal butter churn, Cheese maker? Sausage grinder? ([[2]] )? Wappenbuch des Heiligen Römischen Reiches - BSB 390, Nürnberg, 1554 - 1568, folio 715	"In red, silver octagon, on it a silver hand/glove" according to Harwick Arch.

Drunken roundel, American eagle, rugby football

Wappenbuch	Wappenbuch	Wappenbuch
A roundel wavy?	Argent, a falcon rising atop a trimount azure between two barrulets embowed to chief gules, the trimount issuant from the lower barrulet.	A cartouche pointed aka mandorla? a fusil? a lense?

Arlberg-Brudershaft Oddities

Wappenbuch

Wappenbuch der Arlberg-Brudershaft, 1548

726 Ott Fleming: Sable, two batons headed of chevrons couped in saltire Or (vs. spear/unfletched arrows). 767 Jorg Zyl: Per pale azure and argent, two batons headed of chevrons couped in saltire counterchanged (vs. spear/unfletched arrows). 794: Cherboy: Sable, a cross between four batons headed of chevrons inverted argent (vs. broadheads). 794: Bursckrafft: Gules, two batons headed at each end of trefoils in saltire Or (vs. saltire/salterelle bottony). 841 Ammy: Gules, two batons headed of pomegranates/poppies/rosehips/onions in saltire argent.