The earliest markings of arms are the so-called "places of honor" (honorable ordinaries).' Like the early house-marks, they are generally figures of variously combined straight lines.
The Escutcheon, or field, was divided into various colors by lines or bands which have different directions and patterns, and are technically called halved (figs. 12, 13,151. 5o), quartered (fig. 14), divided into several spaces (fialy, jig. 15; bariy, fig. 16), diverging from a single point (pile, fig. 17), divided into rhomboids or lozenges (barengy, fig. iS), by broken lines (fig. 19), by curved lines (Jig. 20), or checkered (fio- 2r) Sometimes the tipper part of the shield is divided off by a horizontal line, and it is then called the chic f (fig. 21). Ofteu the entire border of the field was left free (fig. 22). Uneven divisions of the field produced the pale (fig. 23), the cross-bar or _Ass (fig. 24), the slanting bar or bend (fig. 25), the chevron (fig. 26), the cross (fig. 27). These different arrangements are sometimes repeated (pallets, jig. 29), or occupy only a part of the field fig. 30), which may again be treated as the original field as in fig. 33). Sometimes the partition-lines are wavy fig. 2S), curved (fig. 31), or crenellated Jig. 32), etc.
The as they are technically called, the shield do not in the earliest examples have an heraldic significance. The shield in Figure 6o dates from the thirteenth century, but it is doubtful if the device upon it is anything else than ornamental. The charges are extremely diverse, a natural result of their immense number. Many have undergone changes in the course of centuries—have become un recognizable and difficult to determine. Widely-extended families made slight changes in the armorial bearings in order to distinguish the dif ferent branches from one another and front the main stem—a practice which in later times was not permitted unless approved by the sovereign. Sometimes unrelated families have the same charge with different colors, and occasionally the entire escutcheon is the same, the distinction lying in the ornaments of the helmet alone.
The armed knight wore over his helmet a floating veil (lambrequin) to protect it from the hot rays of the sun; this veil was of the same color as the shield. He also wore, at least on special occasions, a decoration upon
his helmet, gayly colored in accordance with the simple taste of his age, and affording an opportunity for reproducing his coat of arms. As in course of time symbolism took the place of reality, the veils above spo ken of were treated as objects of ornamentation, and many a decoration was invented which could never actually have been worn upon the head. Sovereigns placed their crowns upon their coats of arms—a custom soon adopted by the nobility in connection with the helmet; sometimes such combinations gave rise to the most incongruous forms.
Arms of and cities also adopted arms or were accorded them by the sovereign. Their coats of arms, however, were naturally devoid of the helmet and its decorations, such as the knights actually wore, as localities could scarcely be conceived of as being mounted on steeds. Our Plate contains the arms of the states of the old German Con federation. They were for the most part the coats of arms of the reigning houses: Lippe-Detmold (fig. 34), Schaumburg-Lippe (fig. 35), Anhalt (fig. 36), Oldenburg (fig. 37), Brunswick (fig. 38), Hanover (jig. 39), Prussia (fig. 40), the two Hesses (fig. 4r), the two Mecklenburgs (fig. 42), Holstein (fig. 43), Waldeck (fig. 44), the principalities of Reuss (fig. 45), the principalities of Schwarzburg (fig. 46), Nassau (fig. 47), the kingdom and duchies of Saxony (fig. 48), Bavaria (fig. 49), \Viirtemberg (fig. 50), Baden (fig. 5r), Austria, the family arms being supported by the imperial eagle (jig. 52), Liechtenstein (jig. 53), and the free cities of Lubeck, Hamburg, Bremen, and Frankfort (figs. 54-57). Figures 61-65 represent coats of arms of the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and eighteenth centu ries. That of the fourteenth century is simple and natural; the two of the next century are pure and within due bounds; the one of the sixteenth century is overladen with ornament, and has not the true shape of the shield; while the last one is entirely erroneous and full of flourishes.
Plate 51 represents the arms of the principal nations of the world.'