Canting arms

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For the tool used for making batik, see Canting.
A common simple example of canting arms: the castle representing the Kingdom of Castile and the lion representing the Kingdom of León.[1]

Canting arms are heraldic bearings that represent the bearer's name (or, less often, some attribute or function) in a visual pun or rebus.

French heralds used the term armes parlantes (English: "talking arms"), as they would sound out the name of the armiger. Many armorial allusions require research for elucidation because of changes in language and dialect that have occurred over the past millennium.

Canting arms – some in the form of rebuses – are quite common in German civic heraldry. They have also been increasingly used in the 20th century among the British royal family.[citation needed] When the visual representation is not straightforward but as complex as a rebus, this is sometimes called a rebus coat of arms.[citation needed] An in-joke among the Society for Creative Anachronism heralds is the pun, "Heralds don't pun; they cant."[2]

Examples of canting arms[]

Personal coats of arms[]

A famous example of canting arms are those of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother's paternal family, the Bowes-Lyon family. The arms (pictured below) contain the bows and blue lions that make up the arms of the Bowes and Lyon families.

Municipal coats of arms[]

Municipal coats of arms which interpret the town's name in rebus form are also called canting. Here are a few examples.

  • The arms of Berwickshire, Scotland: Bear and Wych Elm

  • Elmbridge, Surrey (1974): elm tree on bridge. (The toponym is related to bridges but not to elms; the prefix refers to Emel, a former name for the river Mole.[4])

  • Châteaurenard: Château = castle; Renard = fox

  • Eberbach (1976): Eber = boar; Bach = brook (wavy blue fess)

  • The coat of arms of the village of Hensbroek in North Holland interprets the toponym as "hen-breeches" (the toponym is unrelated to either "hen" or "breeches", deriving from the personal name Hein and the Dutch cognate of "brook", i.e. "Henry's brook".)

  • The log driving pike pole, which the bear carries in the coat of arms of Kontiolahti, refers to the importance of forestry in the region’s economy.[5]

  • Freixo de Espada à Cinta (1926): Freixo = ash (tree); de Espada = with sword; à Cinta = at the waist, in Portuguese

  • Falkenberg (1948): Falken = falcon; Berg = hill, in Swedish

  • Seinäjoki (1951): seinä = wall, joki = river, in Finnish

  • Berlin (1954): Bär = bear

  • Manacor: man = hand, a = at, cor = heart, in Catalan[6]

  • Torrevieja (1829): Torre = tower, vieja = old

  • Kryvyi Rih: Kryvyi = crooked, Rih = horn, in Ukrainian

  • Rueda (1986): rueda = wheel in Spanish

  • Łódź: Łódź = boat

  • Wolfsburg: Wolf's Castle

  • Arms of Magenta, France, feature a bend sinister in magenta, an extremely rare tincture in heraldry

  • Örnsköldsvik (1894): Örn = Eagle, Sköld = Shield and Vik = Bay.

  • Füssen: Füße = feet

  • Schaffhausen: Schaf = sheep, Haus = house

  • Steinhaus: Stein = stone, Haus = house

  • Schattendorf: Schatten = shadow, Dorf = village

  • Hadersdorf-Kammern: Hader = quarrel, Dorf = village

Ecclesiastical coats of arms[]

  • The arms of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lansing: The lances crossed per saltire are a play on the name of the see, the city of Lansing, Michigan.[7]

  • The arms of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre: The mounds in the circle at the center of the arms are a play on the name of city in which the diocese is based, Rockville Centre, New York.[8]

  • The arms of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge: The shield features a red baton, referencing the city name, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and its literal French meaning.

  • The arms of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo: The arms feature an American bison, colloquially called a buffalo, carrying a banner of the Cross of St. George (analogous to the heraldic Lamb of God), referencing the name of city in which the see is based, Buffalo, New York.

  • The arms of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brownsville: The tincture of the field, tenné, is depicted as brown, referencing the seat of the diocese, Brownsville, Texas.

  • The arms of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix: The arms feature a phoenix, the namesake of the diocesan seat, Phoenix, Arizona.

  • The arms of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth: The arms feature a castle, referencing the fort for which the city, Fort Worth, Texas, was named.

  • The arms of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Anchorage: The anchor references the namesake of the see, Anchorage, Alaska.

  • The arms of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford: The arms feature a hart, a male deer, in the midst of flowing water, i.e., fording a body of water, referencing the name of the see, Hartford, Connecticut.

  • The arms of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles: The arms feature three pairs of wings, denoting three angels, and referencing the namesake of the see, Los Angeles, California, which translates to "the angels."

Notes[]

  1. ^ "Tinctures".
  2. ^ Neznanich, Modar. "Heraldry for Those Who Cant" (PDF). Retrieved 2 July 2012. Cites 72 historical examples of canting arms, as well as SCA usage.
  3. ^ Englefield, Eric (1979). Flags. Ward Lock. p. 104.
  4. ^ Room, Adrian (1988). Dictionary Of Place Names In The British Isles. Bloomsbury. p. 128.
  5. ^ Suomen kunnallisvaakunat (in Finnish). Suomen Kunnallisliitto. 1982. p. 139. ISBN 951-773-085-3.
  6. ^ Schneider, Klaus-Michael. "Municipality of Manacor". Flags of the World. CRW Flags. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  7. ^ "Bishop Boyea arms". Diocese of Lansing. Roman Catholic Diocese of Lansing. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  8. ^ "Bishop Barres arms". Diocese of Rockville Centre. Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre. Retrieved 26 July 2018.

Sources[]

  • Winifred Hall: Canting and Allusive Arms of England and Wales. 1966. ISBN 9780900023019

References[]

External links[]

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