A Complete Guide to HeraldryFox-Davies, Arthur Charles
History
A Complete Guide to Heraldry
Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles
Heraldry -- Great Britain
_The heraldic Rose_ until a much later date than its first appearance in
armory--it occurs, however, at the earliest period--was always represented
in what we now term the "conventional" form, with five displayed petals
(Fig. 491). Accustomed as we are to the more ornate form of the cultivated
rose of the garden, those who speak of the "conventional" heraldic rose
rather seem to overlook that it is an exact reproduction of the wild rose
of the hedgerow, which, morever, has a tendency to show itself "displayed"
and not in the more profile attitude we are perhaps accustomed to. It
should also be observed that the earliest representations of the heraldic
rose depict the intervening spaces between the petals which are noticeable
in the wild rose. Under the Tudor sovereigns, the heraldic rose often shows
a double row of petals, a fact which is doubtless accounted for by the then
increasing familiarity with the cultivated variety, and also by the attempt
to conjoin the rival emblems of the warring factions of York and Lancaster.
[Illustration: FIG. 491.--Rose.]
[Illustration: FIG. 492.--Rose slipped and leaved.]
Though the heraldic rose is seldom, if ever, otherwise depicted, it should
be described as "barbed vert" and "seeded or" (or "barbed and seeded
proper") when the centre seeds and the small intervening green leaves (the
calyx) between the petals are represented in their natural colours. In the
reign of the later Tudor sovereigns the conventionality of earlier heraldic
art was slowly beginning to give way to the pure naturalism towards which
heraldic art thereafter steadily degenerated, and we find that the rose
then begins (both as a Royal badge and elsewhere) to be met with "slipped
and leaved" (Fig. 492). The Royal fleurs-de-lis are turned into natural
lilies in the grant of arms to Eton College, and in the grant to William
Cope, Cofferer to Henry VII., the roses are slipped ["Argent, on a chevron
azure, between three roses gules, slipped and leaved vert, as many
fleurs-de-lis or. Crest: out of a fleur-de-lis or, a dragon's head gules"].
A rose when "slipped" theoretically has only a stalk added, but in practice
it will always have at least one leaf added to the slip, and a rose
"slipped and leaved" would {270} have a leaf on either side. A rose
"stalked and leaved" is not so limited, and will usually be found with a
slightly longer stalk and several leaves; but these technical refinements
of blazon, which are really unnecessary, are not greatly observed or taken
into account. The arms of the Burgh of Montrose afford an example of a
single rose as the only charge, although other instances will be met with
in the arms of Boscawen, Viscount Falmouth ["Ermine, a rose gules, barbed
and seeded proper"], and of Nightingale, Bart. ["Per pale ermine and gules,
a rose counterchanged"].
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