This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: Do not list random items without example or reference.
Do not list 'nonce' items only found in recent emblems, give an example from classical heraldry with date of attestation for each item listed, if possible stay within examples of classical heraldry (before 1800).
If it's only found in modern municipal arms but it must be added, at least explain where exactly it is found -- yes "a chicken wearing trousers" can be cited alongside "griffin" as a "heraldic charge", but there are degrees of notability.. Please help improve this article if you can. (March 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
This is a list of heraldic charges. It does not cover those charges which are geometrical patterns and resemble partitions of the field; for these, see Ordinary (heraldry).
Fox-Davies (1909) in his presentation of common heraldic charges divides them into the following categories (not including ordinaries and subordinaries): the human figure, the heraldic lion, beasts (mammals), monsters, birds, fish, reptiles, insects, plants (trees, leaves, fruits and flowers), and "inanimate objects".
Subordinaries
a shield with three lozenges.
A number of simple geometric shapes have traditionally, and somewhat arbitrarily, been classified among the so-called subordinaries. (All other mobile charges are called common charges.)
roundel, but different tinctures have different names: for example roundels argent are called plates. A roundel barry wavy azure and argent is called a fountain.
label: commonly a mark of difference, but also appears as an independent charge.
fret: originally woven from three bendlets (dexter) and three bendlets sinister, now usually a single bendlet each way interwoven with a mascle.[1]
Human figures
Coat of arms for Manesse (Zürich armorial, c. 1340)
The heart, even when blazoned "a human heart", always appears like the heart in a deck of cards rather than a natural human heart.
A "dug" or woman's breast "distilling drops of milk" famously appears in the arms of the Dodge family, and appeared for a time on the badge of cars made by the Dodge Automotive company.[8]
Testicles: the Neapolitan family of Coglione bore per fess argent and gules, three pairs of testicles counterchanged.[10] The similar coat of the Counts Colleoni of Milan is sometimes blazoned Per pale argent and gules, three hearts reversed counterchanged.[11]
Any animal can be a heraldic charge, although more traditional ones vary in the exactitude with which they resemble the creature as found in nature. Animals depicted naturally are either described as natural or using the scientific nomenclature.
The heraldic tyger is an imaginary monster; where the natural beast appears it is blazoned as a Bengal tiger.[1][12]
A leopard refers to a lion "passant guardant", rather than a natural leopard, in the languages of French and English heraldry. A leopard's face also occurs, sometimes jessant-de-lys.[1]
The salamander is typically shown as a generic lizard, sometimes with a head of unusual shape often described as "dog-shaped", and always surrounded by flames.
Sphinx: depicted with the head and breasts of a woman.
Griffin, combining the head (but with ears), chest, wings and forelegs of the eagle with the hindquarters and legs of a lion (A sub-type of griffin, the Keythong lacks wings with the upper body having armor plate like feathers and its lower body is scattered with sharp spiny quills). See List of griffins as mascots and in heraldry.
Unicorn, having a horse's body, deer's legs, goat's beard, and often a lion's tail
The hippogriff is like the griffin except that the lion parts of the griffin are replaced by those of a horse.
Theow is a wolf-like creature but with cloven hooves.
The "sea-horse" (hippocampus) is depicted as half horse and half fish
The sea-lion is a combination of a lion and a fish.[1]
Any combination of parts of other animals, e.g. winged reindeer, is possible.[1]
Birds
By far the most frequent heraldic bird is the eagle.[citation needed] A variant is the alerion, without beak or feet, seen in the arms of the duchy of Lorraine (of which it is not quite an anagram).
Also very frequent is the martlet, a conventional swallow depicted without feet or the French variant the merlette, which also omits the beak.
When a pelican is blazoned as "vulning", it refers to a pelican injuring herself, while a pelican "in her piety" refers to a female pelican feeding her young with her own blood.[21]
"one can safely say that there is scarcely an object under the sun which has not at some time or other been introduced into a coat of arms or crest. One cannot usefully make a book on armory assume the character of a general encyclopedia on useful knowledge, and reference will only be made in this chapter to a limited number, including those which from frequent usage have obtained a recognised heraldic character."
Lettering in coats of arms are usually placed in the motto, not in the heraldic shield as a charge. However, a tradition of introducing individual letters as heraldic charges on the basis of acrophony originates in the 15th to 16th century, primarily in personal and municipal heraldry, and with some frequency in the modern period, appearing more often on the continent than in British heraldry where letters as charges have traditionally been discouraged. Fox-Davies (1909:281) regarding letters of the alphabet as heraldic charges:
"Instances of these are scarcely common, but the family of Kekitmore[31] may be adduced as bearing 'Gules, three S's or,' while Bridlington Priory had for arms 'Per pale, sable and argent, three B's counterchanged.' [...] Corporate arms (in England) afford an instance of alphabetical letters in the case of the B's on the shield of Bermondsey."
One of the earliest instances of the use of letters as heraldic charges is that of the Langenmantel family of Augsburg. Rüdiger I Langenmantel (d. 1342), one of the leading figures of the Augsburg patriciate during the first four decades of the 14th century, is the founder of the "Langenmantel vom RR" branch of the family, derived from his coat of arms showing two letters R (for his given name), shown addorsed (as mirror images).[32]
A mount (mountain, hill hillock). A mount with three tops is known as trimount, for mounts with more than three tops, the number of tops is blazoned as coupeaux (as in, a mount with six coupeaux). When the mount is included in the lower part of the shield, it may be considered an ordinary rather than a charge.
Castle, a castle of the generic type consists of two towers connected by an embattled wall (also a charge in heraldry).[1] Varieties occur, such as being triangular or quadrangular. Also, the windows and doors can be of a different tincture, as well as the masonry. Sometimes they have domed towers.
Towers can be combined with castles or have their own towers. They vary in the same way as castles.
The Japanese mon emblem has been used as heraldic charge in recent heraldry. It is blazoned in traditional heraldic style rather than in the Japanese style. An example is the Canadian-granted coat of arms of David Tsubouchi (1993).[47]
^
From "Jack of Naples" (Jac-a-Napes), later (early modern period) reanalyzed as "jack-an-apes", taking "apes" as "ape, monkey".
Monkeys were one of many exotic goods from Naples exhibited in England, hence acquired the nickname Jack a Napes (first attested 1450).
^Charles Norton Elvin, Dictionary of Heraldry, 1889, plate 29, nos. 57–59.
The monkey as heraldic animal remained comparatively rare, but it is on record from as early as the 14th century, as in the Affenstein crest from the Zürich armorial (c. 1340).
^The coat of arms of the 64th Armor Regiment of the United States Army specifies, bizarrely, "the head of a fighting African elephant," though there should be no distinction made between this and the depiction of a default elephant.
^A Complete Guide to Heraldry by A.C. Fox-Davies and J.P. Brook-Little (1969 edition), p. 212.
^In the arms of the 91st Bombardment Group of the United States Air Force.Air Force Combat Units of World War II. p. 158.
^Shown in the coats of arms of several units of the United States Air Force, such as the 508th Fighter Group.Air Force Combat Units of World War II. p. 371.
