£1,495.00
A spectacular large-format French heraldic chart presenting the science of blazon through an exceptionally dense arrangement of hundreds of individually identified coats of arms, accompanied by diagrams and explanatory texts detailing heraldic terminology, crowns and coronets, ecclesiastical dignities, helmets, charges, divisions of the shield and other elements of armorial practice.
Printed from an engraved plate and extensively coloured by hand, the chart combines practical heraldic instruction with a remarkable visual survey of French and European noble insignia. Individual arms are rendered in vivid blue, red, yellow, green and black, while the surrounding instructional panels explain the vocabulary and conventions necessary to read and describe heraldry.
Heraldry developed during the Middle Ages as a practical means of identifying knights and noble families, but over succeeding centuries it evolved into an elaborate visual language governed by precise rules. By the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, understanding this language was regarded as an essential component of genealogical and aristocratic learning.
This extraordinary chart was designed to place that entire system before the viewer on a single sheet.
At its centre is a remarkable gallery of armorial bearings associated with noble families and territories. Around them are the tools required to decipher their meaning: the forms of shields, heraldic divisions, charges, helmets, crowns and coronets, together with the insignia associated with ranks ranging from princes and dukes to marquises, counts, viscounts and barons.
Particularly striking is the section devoted to ecclesiastical dignities, illustrating the distinctive insignia of the Pope, cardinal, archbishop, bishop, abbé, abbess and prior.
The result is simultaneously a reference work, teaching aid and decorative object — effectively an illustrated dictionary of European heraldry condensed into one monumental sheet.
The immediate attraction is visual. The enormous concentration of individually hand-coloured shields creates an exceptionally decorative display, while closer examination reveals a sophisticated educational document explaining the language and hierarchy of European heraldry.
Its appeal crosses several collecting fields: heraldry, genealogy, European nobility, engraving, cartographic-style educational charts and decorative prints.
Unlike a conventional heraldic book, the entire system is presented simultaneously, making the sheet particularly effective when framed. The surviving hand colouring adds considerably to its decorative character and gives each individual coat of arms remarkable presence.
For a collection concerned with heraldry or genealogy, this is precisely the sort of object that can serve as a centrepiece rather than simply another reference work.
Large early nineteenth-century French engraved heraldic chart, extensively hand-coloured, illustrating hundreds of coats of arms together with crowns, coronets, ecclesiastical insignia, helmets, heraldic charges and the terminology of blazon. A highly decorative and unusually comprehensive visual guide to European heraldry.
