Re: May Laurel Acceptances and Returns

[vnend%nudity@Princeton.EDU (David W. James)]

Poster: vnend%nudity@Princeton.EDU (David W. James)

PETERSR@spiegel.becltd.com (Peters, Rise J.) wrote:
> Lady Rhiannon Ui Neill, Triton Principal Herald, Atlantia wrote:
> >>The name is being returned for lack of documentation. The armory is
> >>   being returned for a redraw, as it was not clear, even on the large
>  >>   emblazon, whether the animal was a cow as blazon, or a goat, what
> >>the submitter apparently wanted.

> How does this work?  When I submitted my device, I was told not to worry 
> about the fact that I can't draw, that if my drawing wasn't good enough to 
> make it clear that I meant a dumbek and not a goblet, the heralds would look 
> at the blazon and judge accordingly.  

	What is actually registered is the picture (the emblazon); the verbal
description of the picture (the blazon) is simply a tool for the heralds
use (which is why you get initiatives like the current one to normalize the
terminology for a seahorse (the fish) and a sea-horse (the heraldic
monster with the fore-parts of a horse and the tail of a fish.)  Past
blazons have been found to be inconsistant, so Laurel and her staff are
currently going through and checking all the registered "seahorses" and
making sure that the blazon agrees with the picture.  But I digress...)

	Within broad allowances, artistic ability doesn't affect things much,
but there are always extreme cases.  In this example, Laurel and her
staff and random passers by who were grabbed for quick opinions were all
confused by the drawing ("It looks like a cow, but...")  which is
exactly what you don't want with armory.  Hense the return for a redraw.

	The East, at least at one time, had a heraldic officer, Pallet
Pursuivant, whose job was just this occational job of redrawing a
device, and for all I know Atlantia has a simular position.  Certainly a
resubmission shouldn't be too difficult to do, as long as the submittor
gets to agree to it in advance.

	This principle (of registering the emblazon rather than the blazon) is
also why Laurel and the Kingdom heralds occationally return something
for a redraw, such as when people have charges that overlap the field
and the chief, or if there are simple honest mistakes, like the device
pended in May because the *blazon* reversed the tinctures of the field
(since the commentors in the rest of the world only see the
black-and-white outline, they need the blazon to color it in, and the
order of colors in a quarterly field is a significant difference in SCA heraldry.)

Kwellend-Njal
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