[antir-heralds] Questions from a novice herald

[Britt]

> As for my dear wife, her first request was for Sable,
> a Maine Coon (if possible) cat salient on a field of
> pigeons rising or. I suggested semy of pigeons (she
> said that's what she was thinking - yes, we've been
> told we deserve each other), but there's a conflict
> with someone's sable semy-de-lys, a lion doing
> something regal in argent. I found one to one
> difference for tincture of elements, but the fleur de
> lys and the birds rising would be too similar.

Style before conflict, Gosfrei.  You cannot have a breed of an animal
not known in period, and the Maine Coon didn't become a breed until
the 1800s.  There are various precedents on dog breeds which are
relevant.

> I didn't write the conflicting device down; I had
> planned to look for 4 to 6 pigeons/birds rising
> instead, but my eyes got too tired.

Six and higher numbers, including sem [sic] or charges, are not
significantly different from each other.  RfS X.4.f.

> So there you have it. She has also, for a friend,
> suggested a cat double-queued between three rocking
> chairs. She's special, my wife is...

Shouldn't that be triple-queued?

> And now I have another question, please. I can find
> all sors of descriptions of arms in the SCA O&A, but
> where would I go to see what they actually look like?
> Does each Kingdom keep an online collection of
> heraldry for its citizens?

You can find some rolls of arms online - there's a link at the bottom
of Laurel's webpage, but you cannot trust those emblazons to be
accurate.  Only the emblazons in the Laurel files are official.  I've
seen some pretty egregious differences between registered blazons and
emblazons on rolls of arms or even in general use.  Chiefs suddenly
becoming per fess lines, tincture swaps, depictions rather different
than the registered version.  So check out the links from the Laurel
page - http://www.sca.org/heraldry/links.html - but don't expect them
to give you information you can use in conflict and style checking.

- Teceangl