Oh dear - what a balzup!

Most armorists I know have "issues" with heraldic bucket shops ; but there is generally little we can do and so we tend to just jog along uncomfortably side by side. Nowadays the vendor usually starts his sales pitch with something akin to "we guarantee to research and find your family coat of arms" but somewhere, usually in the smallest of small print, he will have a disclaimer stating that coats of arms do not belong to surnames but to individuals; I like to convince myself that many purchasers of these memorials go on to become real heraldry students and if that is the case then it ain't so bad.

Just occasionally however, a really appalling example of ignorance comes to my attention. This one perpetuates the cringe-worthy myth that charges and tinctures have fixed and romantic meanings.  Worst of all though is the absolute marketing faux pas of making the type of fundamental spelling error on your advertising material indicating that you really don't know your subject at all.



The really sad thing is that he will have actually sold some of these and they will be proudly displayed by their owners all over the world!