Heraldry as art: An account of its development and practice, chiefly in EnglandEve, G. W. (George William)
History
Heraldry as art: An account of its development and practice, chiefly in England
Eve, G. W. (George William)
Heraldry -- Great Britain
The cross moline (Fig. 111) has ends like a fer-de-moline or millrind.
A very beautiful example occurs on the seal of Anthony de Bec, Bishop
of Durham at the end of the thirteenth century (Fig. 112). This form
of cross moline was distinguished by writers of a late time from the
ordinary form with more pointed ends as a cross recercelée, but it was
really the same thing under a different name.
[Illustration: FIG. 113.--Cross Patée.]
The cross patée or formée (Fig. 113) is that which occurs on the
Imperial crown and other Royal insignia. This is a very graceful form
when the limbs are well divided and are drawn with pleasant curves,
as in the crown in Fig. 164. In later examples there has been an
unfortunate widening of the ends until they almost touch each other
at the corners with the result that the figure has the appearance of
a square that is pierced with four radiating vesica-shaped holes and
hardly that of a cross at all.
[Illustration: FIG. 114.--Cross Crosslet.]
[Illustration: FIG. 115.--Cross crosslet Fitchée.]
[Illustration: FIG. 116.--Maltese Cross.]
The cross crosslet (Fig. 114) becomes (in Fig. 115) a cross crosslet
fitchée by its lower limb being pointed, in allusion to the temporary
cross thrust upright into the ground in order, it may be, to serve
as a symbol of hope and consolation to a dying soldier. It must not
be supposed, however, that every coat with a cross crosslet fitchée
originated in the Crusades. Other crosses may be fitchée in a similar
way, the point taking the place of the whole lower limb as in the
example, but in some cases it is made to merely continue the lower
limb, or, in the case of a cross patée fitchée, to issue from the
middle of the lower end, and in such cases the cross is said to be
_fitched at the foot_.
[Illustration: FIG. 117.--Cross Bottonée.]
[Illustration: FIG. 118.--Cross Pommel.]
[Illustration: FIG. 119.--Cross Urdée.]
The eight-pointed or Maltese cross, a development from the cross patée
(Fig. 116), is one of the forms most used in the insignia of Orders
of Knighthood, the Order of the Bath, for example, and of St. John of
Jerusalem among others, and is one of a group of crosses distinguished
from each other by the number of their points. A cross of fourteen
points occurs in the badge of the Order of St. Michael and St. George,
and consists of seven limbs of two points each.
The cross bottonée (Fig. 117) is sometimes thought to be a corruption
of the cross crosslet, whose corners are frequently rounded in early
examples, or it may indeed have been designed to represent buds, as old
armorists say, and if so is a perfectly intelligible and expressive
symbol.
Crosses pomell (Fig. 118), urdée or clichée (Fig. 119), potent (Fig.
120), furchée (Fig. 121), are some of a large number of crosses that
are but rarely used.
The cross tau, derived from the Greek letter of that name, is the cross
of St. Anthony (Fig. 122).
[Illustration: FIG. 120.--Cross Potent.]
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