Originals are best ... but at £780?

I love books, especially heraldry books and doubly so if they relate to areas of particular interest such as Cheshire. Like many heraldry enthusiast, I have a limited budget and so many books, long out of print, are way beyond my purse. Take the very hard to obtain book published by Daniel King in 1656, The Vale Royal of England, or The County Palatine of Chester Illustrated; it doesn't contain too much heraldry, just a few pages of an armorial of the Cheshire gentry, but it was that which formed the foundation of the Cheshire Heraldry web site some years ago. I have searched long and hard for a copy of this book and the few that have come onto the market have been prohibitively expensive. On the 20th April 2005, Christies sold a copy at their South Kensington auction rooms when it fell under the hammer at a massive £780 ($1'495) including buyer's premium.

Described thus in their catalogue: "KING, Daniel (d.1664). The Vale-Royall of England or, the County Palatine of Chester Illustrated, London: John Streater, 1656. Small 2° (271 x 175mm). Additional engraved title, double page engraved map of Cheshire, double-page engraved bird's-eye view of Chester, 11 plates of coats-of-arms, double-page map of the Isle of Man, plates, one folding, illustrations (both titles torn and neatly repaired, final 2 leaves torn and neatly repaired, a few repaired tears, occasional light spotting and staining). 19th-century panelled tan morocco gilt by Riviere, gilt edges (spine and extremities rubbed). Provenance: Philip Shirley (modern armorial bookplate). Wing K488; Upcott I, 61-63. "

Beyond my purse .... so I have come up with my own solution.

The other day, to my great joy, I discovered that the book has been digitally scanned and uploaded onto the internet's digital archives ; what a superb resource this provides to us "academic heralds" (a term I have borrowed from David Appleton).  Now, pleased as I am to have found this book online, it doesn't exactly satisfy that comfortable feeling of having something tangible to hold and read and my eyesight doesn't improve with age so trying to read a complete book online is anything but the pleasure it ought to be; you just can't beat a good book.  I've made a decision!  I have found a company who will, for a fee, make me a facsimile. The company estimates that for this book to be printed, the cost will be around  £50 + £10 guillotining, + £40 to bind in cloth + £1 per word for gold leaf titling on the cover.  I have asked for it to be printed off on a 135gsm cream cartridge paper but I could have had it printed on some handmade old looking paper at an increased cost. The book is for my own personal use and because of its age, there are no copyright issues.

I'll report back with some images when the project is complete. I look forward to some bedtime reading.

A new season of Cheshire Heraldry starts in September.

 

The new programme for 2009 - 2010 can be found here:

 http://cheshire-heraldry.org.uk/society/

The Great Clan Gathering 2009

Not strictly speaking heraldry although I do know that there was a great deal of heraldry in evidence, especially in the parade. Today witnessed the great clan gathering in Edinburgh and a great many of my friends were in attendance and participated in the parade with their banners flying; I look forward to seeing their photographs.

An Heraldic Frontispiece worthy of note.

My meagre endeavors to bring the heraldry of Cheshire to the web really started with an introduction to the book published by Daniel King in 1656 (King's Vale Royal of England). I reproduce for you here a scaled down photo of (part of) the frontispiece which, I think, is worthy of note from an armorial view:

48 and not (quite) out.

It's always very pleasant to receive a letter from a friend and especially so when the content discusses ones hobby.

My thanks to Harold Storey, Chairman of The Cheshire Heraldry Society, for assisting in the identification of (most of) the quarters in the armorial bearings of Booth which are displayed as a monument to Langham and Henry Booth seen in the Dunham (or Booth) Chapel at Bowdon Parish Church. Harold wrote me a very pleasant letter (received today) informing me that he had already done this work some years ago when he completed a report for the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts; he was kind enough to share his research with me.



http://cheshire-heraldry.org.uk/gallery_image48.html

Marbury of Marbury

Changes to the Visitations images now up to Marbury of Marbury:

http://cheshire-heraldry.org.uk/visitations/CV19.html

Marbury of MarburyArms: Quarterly-
1 & 6 Sable, a cross engrailed between four nails Argent
2 Or, on a fess engrailed Azure three garbs of the field [Marbury ancient or Vernon]
3 Argent, a lion rampant Gules, collared Or [Vernon]
4 Vert, a cross patonce Or [Boydell]
5 Argent, on a fess Sable three mullets of the first pierced of the second [Boydell?]

Crest: On a chapeau Gules, charged with three bezants, and turned up Argent, a sarecen's head in profile, couped proper, crined Sable, wreathed about the temples Or and Azure.

When a difference makes no difference.

Earlier this month I made reference to the widow Legh of Adlington and her desire to forego the expensive luxury of an armorial funeral and it brought to mind the fact that students of Cheshire heraldry often encounter curiosities which are probably not unique to the county but which nevertheless illustrate that the science of armory was not invented in a complete and finished form  but evolved and continues to evolve to this day. Let us take but one example of the various armorial bearings of a number of Cheshire Leigh/Legh/Lee families; that of Legh of Adlington.

Illustrated below are the arms recorded in the 1580 Visitations and those later recorded in 1663.



Setting aside, for the moment, the fact that the pronominal arms (1st & 4th quarters) are not those of Legh, we must surely notice that the second quarter, which is the coat of Legh, has changed, ever so slightly, over the intervening eight decades.

The armorial bearings of this family are those of Venables (Azure, two bars Argent), differenced by the bend (or bendlet) gobony, to mark the fact that the male line is actually descended from the Venables barons of Kinderton. John de Venables assumed the name of Legh after inheriting the Adlington estates from his mother's family.

The Visitations of 1580 have a number of entries for the arms of Leigh of Adlington: They are first mentioned in the pedigree of Leigh of High Ligh, of the West Hall, where they are recorded as belonging to Robert Leigh of Adlington - Azure, two bars Argent, over all a bendlet gobony Or and Gules. N.B. here the arms have a bendlet the tinctures of which are Or and Gules. Next mentioned in the same Visitations are the arms of Leigh of Adlington as illustrated above viz:
Arms: Quarterly -
1 & 4 Azure, a plate between three ducal crowns Or, within a bordure Argent [Corona]
2 Azure, two bars Argent, over all a bendlet gobony Or and Gules [Legh of Adlington]
3Argent, a cross flory Sable [Belgrave]

Crest: A unicorn's head Argent, couped Gules, armed Or

Here again, the arms feature a a bendlet gobony Or and Gules and yet the next entry, one for Robert Leigh of Adlington, records the arms as being Azure, two bars Argent Over all a bend gobone Or and Gules. The bendlet has become a bend but we must bear in mind that without recourse to the originals this, or any of the others, could be  due to a transcription error.

The Visitations of 1613 record the arms of Legh of Adlington as recorded by the same family in 1580 with a bendlet as illustrated on the left above. Move forward another half century and not only has the bendlet put on weight with age but the tinctures are reversed and are now recorded as Gules and Or (as illustrated above on the right).

Does it matter?

In my view, no. These arms tell a story which, to their original owners was a proud indication of their origins. They are essentially the arms of Venables differenced.  I don't think that for the purposes of differencing the original arms there is sufficient difference between a bend and a bendlet to make any difference whichever is used and if that is the case, it really doesn't matter what order the tinctures come in either.