HERALDRY
(Posted 2008-02-10 21:18:32 by ArchPaladin)

One of my little known, obscure interests is in heraldry.  I own a book on
it, I've read up a bit about it, and I can describe a lot of the basics
around it if you asked me.

So I found it rather surprising today to learn that there is an American
Heraldry Society [ http://americanheraldry.org/ ] [americanheraldry.org]
dedicated to form an organization to promote heraldic education and a
governing body for the development of heraldry in America.

For those of you who didn't know (and I suspect that is most all of you),
there is no standardization to the assignment of heraldic coats of arms in
America.  What this means is that anyone who wants to take on a coat of
arms can design their own and use it as they please (the only stipulation
being that you should not duplicate a coat of arms already in existence,
and you should avoid some very specialized symbols that are only used by
actual nobility in other countries).  As heraldry has been an interest of
mine, I had considered doing this for some time.

However, when ILMA started, one of the things that my business partner and
I did when we opened the school was obtaining chops [
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_(Chinese) ] [wikipedia.org] for use when
we sign certificates and other forms of documentation.  Having looked
around a bit, I've found out that chops and mons [
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mon_(crest) ] [wikipedia.org] are classic
forms of Japanese heraldry, rather than the common coat-of-arms look of
European heraldry.

Thinking about it a bit, I realize that I like the chop better than the
coat of arms.

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