Thursday, July 9, 2009

Elephant and -- what is that, anyway?


This came in the Dover Sampler a couple of weeks ago -- from a book of heraldic clipart.

Heraldry, which has absolutely no connection with anything I do in real life, is nonetheless sort of intriguing to me. Where else could you find something like this?

Supporters: A black and white elephant, covered with cross-like designs, who's apparently broken the chain on his collar and escaped; and a green cougar-like animal with a beaver's tail, a crown for a collar, another broken chain, and a stuck-out tongue.

Actually, they're the most interesting part of this coat of arms. The lion on top is almost a cliché, the motto is something unimpeachable about strength and truth, and the device itself is, it seems, a plain old red bullock standing on some wavy lines.

The book doesn't tell the reader whose arms they are, or anything else about them, but that would take it beyond clipart.

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