[antir-heralds] period badges

[Ursula Whitcher]

Britt wrote:
>> I am trying to come up for a badge for myself.  I can find lots of
>> sources on line dealing with what a badge is and how it's different
>> from the device but I cannot find any period examples on line or
>> books dealing with them.

> Online: http://www.antirheralds.org/education/armory/hbadge.html 

Zenobia's article (which Teceangl linked to, quoted above) has modern 
redrawings of period badges.  You can find the same article in the 
Education section of sca.org/heraldry.

The impresa was a period art form which sometimes functioned like a 
badge, but wasn't strictly heraldic.  There are links to some period 
examples in my article here:

http://www.doomchicken.net/~ursula/sca/imprese/imprese.html

There's a nineteenth-century book called Historic Devices, Badges, and 
War-Cries by Mrs. Bury Palliser which isn't too hard to get hold of.  It 
focusses on imprese-style "devices".  The illustrations are all redrawings.

I do think there is a need for an accessible SCA article with examples 
of period badges used in various ways.  The best way I know of to 
produce such examples is to pick one's favorite fourteenth-century or 
later French or English ruler or important nobleman and start hunting. 
For instance, here's a website which mentions different ways that Edward 
the Black Prince used his ostrich-plume badge:

http://www.history.ac.uk/richardII/black_prince.html

Ursula Georges.