Chapeau vs Wreath

I have today received the latest newsletter for The White Lion Society and note the news that there is a new Hon. Treasurer (congratulations to him of course). Curious to know whether he is armigerous, I did a quick search on their website and found that his arms illustrate an example of a chapeau being granted instead of a wreath by the CoA . I had made the possibly incorrect assumption that such chapeau were difficult to obtain and although the armiger, in describing his arms, states that the chapeau "alludes" to his feudal barony, I have yet to be convinced, for a number of reasons, that the college would have officially acknowledged this fact or taken it as a reason for allowing a chapeau. It is my understanding that the college do not make a habit of acknowledging feudal holdings in grants and if this is a Scottish feudal barony (what other kind is there?) then I don't think the CoA would trouble themselves with it. It is interesting to note that having obtained the grant which includes chapeau the armiger then obtained a Scottish matriculation of his arms.

All in all, a very interesting find and an excellent set of arms.



http://whitelionsociety.org.uk/armorial/barham.html