The Essence and Meaning of Armorials on Ceramics

The correct and incorrect usage of armorial bearings on porcelains is illustrated using specific examples of named armorial services such as the Wittelsbach, Pendock-Barry and Viscount Weymouth services. The appropriate usage of genealogy to exclude possible mis-attributions of an armigerous person in the identification of heraldic bearings is illustrated with considerations of the meaning of the heraldic devices. The use of monograms and ciphers in association with a crown or a coronet affords one of the simplest portrayals of an armorial ceramic artefact next to a simple unadorned crest. The difficulties in the interpretation of a crest without an escutcheon or motto is highlighted. Some analogies in modern miliary classification of heraldic bearings are reviewed.