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In heraldry, an escutcheon (/ ɪ ˈ s k ʌ tʃ ən /, ih-SKUTCH-ən) is a shield that forms the main or focal element in an achievement of arms. The word can be used in two related senses. In the first sense, an escutcheon is the shield upon which a coat of arms is displayed. In the second sense, an escutcheon can itself be a charge within a ...
A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design [1] on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its whole consists of a shield, supporters, a crest, and a motto.
The term "coat of arms" technically refers to the shield of arms itself, but the phrase is commonly used to refer to the entire achievement. The one indispensable element of a coat of arms is the shield; many ancient coats of arms consist of nothing else, but no achievement or armorial bearings exists without a coat of arms. [48]
An example of party per cross is the Sovereign Arms of the United Kingdom, as used outside Scotland, which consists of four quarters, displaying the Arms of England, Scotland and Ireland, with the coat for England repeated at the end. (In the royal arms as used in Scotland, the Scottish coat appears in the first and fourth quarters and the ...
In many cases of marriage, the shield is impaled with the husband's entire coat of arms placed on the dexter side and the wife's entire coat placed on the sinister side; if the wife is an heiress, however, her arms are placed in escutcheon over her husband's (such usage is almost entirely English, Scots marshalling being impaling like any other ...
The shield above, which is the arms of Menzies, depicts a red chief placed on a silver shield, and its blazon is Argent, a chief gules. In heraldic blazon, a chief is a charge on a coat of arms that takes the form of a band running horizontally across the top edge of the shield. Writers disagree in how much of the shield's surface is to be ...
Every noble family claims to have been granted a coat of arms by a prestigious personage. [Ha 9] The adoption of the coat of arms by non-combatants attests to the symbolic significance of this object, which is an emblem of power and strength, but also of peace and justice, and shows the link between the individual and the group. [Ha 2]
The use of the crest and torse independently from the rest of the achievement, a practice which became common in the era of paper heraldry, has led the term "crest" to be frequently but erroneously used to refer to the arms displayed on the shield, or to the achievement as a whole.