In another collection I have seen an anchor and an
Amazon’s bow. A device differing from that in No. 10 only in having the
conjoined limbs in armour, will be found in our own English Heraldry to
be the armorial ensign of the Isle of Man.
[Footnote 1: In his “Hand-book of Engraved Gems,” Mr. King maintains
that “the devices on the signets of the ancients were both
hereditary and unalterable, like our armorial bearings;” but, at the
same time, he admits that the “armorial bearings,” which appear “on
the shields of the Grecian heroes in the most ancient pictures
extant, the Vase-paintings,” “seem to have been assumed at the
caprice of the individual, like the knight’s _cognisances_ at
tournaments in the days of chivalry, and not to have been
hereditary.” --“Hand-book,” page 216. Almost immediately, however,
Mr. King adds, that traditions exist which represent the mythic
heroes bearing “engraved on their signets the same devices that
decorated their shields.” It would seem that the argument from such
traditions would rather indicate the signet-devices to have been
arbitrary, than the shield-devices to have been unalterable. While I
readily admit the very interesting devices of antiquity to possess
decided heraldic attributes, I cannot consider Mr. King to have
shown that, as a general rule, they were held by the ancients
themselves to have been either “unalterable” or “hereditary.”
Possibly, further light may be thrown upon the hereditary quality of
ancient Heraldry: but, I certainly do not expect to see any evidence
adduced, which would establish a line of descent connecting the
Mediæval Heraldry of England with any heraldic system of classic
antiquity.]
[Illustration: Nos. 7-10.--Ancient Shields from Greek Vases.]
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