Family Tree Template: Family Crest Symbols

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Family Crest Symbols

A crest is a component of an heraldic display, so called because it stands on top of a helmet, as the crest of a jay stands on the bird's head.

The earliest heraldic crests were apparently painted on metal fans, and usually repeated the coat of arms painted on the shield, a practice which was later discontinued. Later they were sculpted of leather and other materials.

Originally, the crest was often "continued into the mantling", but today the crest normally stands within a wreath of cloth, called a torse, in the principal tinctures of the shield (the liveries). Various kinds of coronet may take the place of the torse, though in some unusual circumstances the coronet sits atop a torse, and is either defined as all or part of a crest.[1] The most frequent crest-coronet is a simplified form of a ducal coronet, with four leaves rather than eight. Towns often have a mural crown, i.e. a coronet in the form of embattled stone walls.