✦ Heraldry in the material world
39 objects and displays, from medieval textiles to modern chapel banners. Ask what an image tells us—and what it leaves unresolved.
These studies reproduce licensed museum and archival photographs, including dated views of modern displays. Dates, identifications, and attributions come from the linked source records; our visual observations and research questions are editorial teaching notes. Specialist review remains pending.
✦ Explore the collection
Periods overlap for broadly dated objects. “Modern” includes dated photographs of longstanding institutions.
No studies match these filters. Try a broader search or clear the filters.
Gift of Mrs. Florence Blumenthal, 1925 · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
German · ca. 1450A painted targe carries a smaller armorial shield. Reading the two separately helps us understand the object without settling its disputed family attribution.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Accession 25.26.1
Rogers Fund, 1912 · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
British · 1300–1320A small stained-glass shield asks how much a photograph can tell us about colour, repair, and original setting.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Accession 12.137.2
Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913 · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
French, Limoges · First quarter of the sixteenth centuryAn enamel plaque joins two armorial compositions while leaving its original larger setting uncertain.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Accession 14.40.697d
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Italy, Urbino region, Gubbio · 1527An Italian maiolica plate puts a family identification inside a much larger decorative composition.
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1950.155
General Income Fund · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
America, late eighteenth–early nineteenth century · 1766–1821 (catalogue range)An American engraving connects an armorial image to a printed name while leaving the history of this particular impression open.
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1918.149
Gift of H.P. Kraus, 1981 · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Netherlandish or South Lowlands (?) · 12th–16th centuryAn armorial wax impression preserves a design while leaving its tinctures, precise date, and bearer unresolved in this study.
Armorial seal impression
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Accession 1981.534.7
Rogers Fund, 1981 · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
South Netherlandish · 19th or 20th century (13th century style)A bronze matrix made in the nineteenth or twentieth century uses a thirteenth-century style. Its manufacture and the historical reference of its design need separate dates.
Comparative seal imagery; no arms identified in this study
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Accession 1981.291
Partial gift of Gerald F. Borrmann · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
French · 1455 (catalogue date)A French illuminated leaf puts personal mottoes beside armorial surfaces whose later changes matter to their interpretation.
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Accession 85.ML.27.2
John L. Severance Fund · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
North Italy, 16th century · c. 1575Repeated arms connect the rider’s equipment with the horse’s armour. Establishing who used it and which pieces began together takes more than matching decoration.
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1964.88
John L. Severance Fund · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Germany, early 16th Century · 1503Dürer’s skull-bearing achievement makes heraldic form carry an allegory rather than an identified family pedigree.
Allegorical achievement; no historical bearer identified
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1953.9
Bequest of John L. Severance · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Netherlands, Hainault, early 16th century · 1520sA millefleurs tapestry becomes a witness to altered ownership because its Medici arms replaced an earlier composition.
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1942.824
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Switzerland, Zurich, late 16th Century · 1593Zürich’s roundel combines civic and imperial imagery, with a ring of small arms that invites careful counting.
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1955.71
Bequest of John L. Severance · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Italy, Urbino · 1532A painted plate places Pucci arms inside a figurative scene, joining domestic display with a difficult history of representation.
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1942.625
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Germany, Nuremberg · c. 1580–91A gilded morion shows why an official’s heraldic display does not necessarily identify the person wearing it.
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1916.1516
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Spain · 1500sA Spanish banner alternates royal and devotional imagery, making two systems of representation share one fabric.
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1916.1885
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
France, Paris · c. 1405Charles of Navarre’s arms occupy a decorated leaf, while the manuscript’s commission and acquisition remain separate questions.
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1964.40.137.a
The Norweb Collection · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
England, Elizabeth I, 1558-1603 · 1601Elizabeth I’s coin places a crowned armorial shield opposite her portrait, while the claim to France exceeds possession.
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1969.186
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Flanders, Ghent and Bruges, late 15th century · c. 1500A Flemish manuscript presents Isabella’s royal devices, while its possible diplomatic gift history remains qualified.
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1963.256.1.b
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wade · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
England, 18th century · 1760–1801An embroidered purse for the Great Seal makes official custody visible through royal arms and a cypher.
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1916.1366
Gift of William G. Mather · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Switzerland · 1559A Swiss-catalogued glass panel named for Überlingen warns against equating represented identity with place of manufacture.
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1953.283
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Great Britain, probably England, 18th century · 1700sA royal banner displays a whole achievement on a coloured ground, rather than simply filling the cloth with a shield’s field.
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1916.1548
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Italy, Florence · 1450–1500Medici devices sit inside a repeating velvet pattern, where heraldry works at the scale of woven cloth.
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1943.67
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Spain, Granada, Nasrid period · 1200–1325A textile catalogued to Granada joins Castilian and Leonese heraldry with the question of who made cloth for whom.
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1939.48
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Italy, last third of 14th century · 1360–1400Falcons, wings, claws, and plumes form an Italian silk pattern whose relationship to a named bearer remains open.
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1943.283
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Germany or Switzerland, 16th century · c. 1515A glass panel puts a Lichtenfels achievement beneath a religious scene, inviting two distinct readings of the same animals.
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1954.149
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Switzerland, Germany, or Austria, 16th century · c. 1515An armoured figure and elaborately dressed companion flank Austrian arms without identifying a particular couple.
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1955.72
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Switzerland, Baden, 16th century · c. 1530Heinrich Bodmer’s named arms share a panel with a richly dressed figure and scenes above and below.
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1954.150
Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Germany, probably Bohemia, 16th century · 1568An enamelled beaker records several achievements and names on a curved surface associated with Magdeburg Cathedral.
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1948.232
John L. Severance Fund · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Spain, Catalonia, Monastery of Pedralbes, 14th century · c. 1330–1340A fragment from a Catalan choir stall invites comparison between sacred imagery, heraldic vocabulary, and furniture construction.
Comparative sacred imagery; no personal arms identified
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1977.74
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hays Gries · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
China, Chinese Export -- English or American Markets, 18th century · c. 1775–1800Chinese export porcelain uses armorial-style framing for a monogram, showing why a shield outline alone does not establish arms.
Monogram in armorial-style framing; bearer not identified
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1958.212
Gift of Jeptha H. Wade in honor of Emily V. Wade · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868) · 1791A Japanese theatre print makes identity visible through costume and a carried banner, without becoming a record of an actual military lord.
Comparative Japanese performance emblems
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1974.81
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Vietnam (Champa) · 900sA Cham sandstone lion challenges a European reading of the word heraldic in a much older Southeast Asian religious setting.
Comparative emblematic sculpture; no coat of arms identified
Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession 1982.146
Bain News Service / Library of Congress · Public domain. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
British · Windsor · Photograph: ca. 1915–1920An early twentieth-century photograph shows banners above stalls that also retain plates. The display combines changing membership with a lasting record of earlier holders.
Dated photographic witness to a changing Garter display
Library of Congress / St George’s Chapel
Photograph identifiers LC-B2-4463-12; digital ID ggbain.26050
Photo by Serendigity · Public domain. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
British · Windsor · Photograph: 21 September 1983A photograph from 1983 records the Garter banners in an older chapel. The architecture, individual displays, and photographed arrangement have different histories.
Modern photographic witness; arrangement shown is from 1983
St George’s Chapel, Windsor / Wikimedia Commons
Photograph identifier Flickr photograph 41181845160
Photo by DAVID ILIFF · CC BY-SA 3.0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
British · London · Photograph: 30 May 2014A 2014 photograph records banners at St Paul’s. Comparing them with Windsor requires the membership and display practices of the correct order.
Modern armorial display photographed in 2014; not the Garter chapel
St Paul’s Cathedral / Wikimedia Commons
Photograph identifier Wikimedia Commons file 33156317
P Sonnard (catalogue attribution); digital reproduction via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
British · Stowe House · Painting: 1806; Photograph: undated reproductionThe Stowe Armorial turns accumulated ancestry into an architectural spectacle. Its 726 quarterings invite a closer look at what marshalling can communicate, and what it takes to substantiate the relationships.
Early nineteenth-century genealogy displayed as architectural armory; not a medieval manuscript
Stowe House
Accession SS.51
Myrabella / Wikimedia Commons / CC0 · Public domain. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Anglo-Norman narrative; makers unrecorded · 11th century; Photograph: 7 March 2013An embroidered battle scene makes shields, bodies, weapons, and words work together. It offers a powerful comparison with later heraldry without turning every shield pattern into a hereditary coat of arms.
Eleventh-century embroidery photographed in 2013; comparison with the development of armory
Bayeux Museum / City of Bayeux
Photograph identifier Wikimedia Commons file 25450703
Gift of John B. Elliott through the Mercer Trust, 1999 · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Japan · Edo period · 1827An 1827 Japanese banner combines a theatrical figure with a small family-associated device. The comparison asks which part identifies the motif, the occasion, and the people connected with the cloth.
Surviving nobori; photograph shows the decorated section, not the full length
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Accession 1999.247.6
Utagawa Hiroshige; Library of Congress reproduction via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Japan · Edo · Print: [1857]; Photograph: undated digital reproductionHiroshige puts a giant festival banner in the foreground and a procession behind it. The print shows how a public sign can organize both a place and the picture made of it.
An artist’s depiction of festival nobori, not a surviving textile or a documentary photograph of the event
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Accession LC-DIG-jpd-02949
✦ A comparative workshop
A painted shield can preserve colour that a wax impression cannot. Glass can make a construction line look like part of the design. Begin with what the material records, then decide which question you can reasonably ask of it.
| Object | Start by observing | Then investigate |
|---|---|---|
| Painted targe | Physical outline and painted achievement | Alternative family attribution and the reverse decoration |
| Stained-glass shield | Colour areas and structural joins | Lighting, conservation, and original setting |
| Impalement in enamel | Two armorial compositions joined vertically | Patronage, workshop attribution, and possible larger ensemble |
| Arms on maiolica | A central shield within an ornamental border | Family identification, circle attribution, and the unknown commission |
| An engraved bookplate | Armorial display, name, and engraver’s inscription | Catalogue date range and evidence of actual use in a book |
| Armorial wax impression | A shield, helmet, ornament, and separate mount | Material colour, catalogue uncertainty, and missing documentary context |
| A later pictorial matrix | Opposite arrangements on matrix and accompanying impression | Manufacture date, medieval style, and the impression’s separate history |
| An illuminated French leaf | Lettered scrolls, a portrait, and several armorial forms | Transcription, normalization, and reported overpainting |
Choose one claim about each object. Write down its source, what it establishes, and what additional evidence would change your confidence. If you observed a feature in the photograph, say where it is. If the catalogue identifies a family, attribute that identification. This gives the next reader a way to check the two claims independently.
Try the seal evidence workshop ↗
Read a manuscript at the transcription desk ↗
Compare objects and keep research notes ↗
Continue to the material-culture seminar ↗Museum photographs use CC0; chapel photographs use public-domain releases or CC BY-SA 3.0. Each reproduction carries its own credit and rights link. The studies distinguish armorial objects from comparison pieces that test the limits of the term “heraldic”.
Explore the original teaching shields ↗
.jpg){kind=link}
