#torteaux

[neovian]

I’ve been making these little silhouette portraits of my pets to spruce up their lookups a bit. Pretty simple on their own, but I think they look cool as a set! P:

[griffinrampant]

Arms of Edt bei Lambach, Austria

Granted 1980

Blazon: Vert on a fess in base argent two torteaux each charged with a cross paté, in chief a turbine or

The wind turbine is a legacy from the American occupation of the area after World War II, when several were built for extracting groundwater. Only one remains today. The crosses represent two former churches in the localities of Mairlambach and Mernbach, and the green field symbolizes the predominance of forests and fields in the region.

[griffinrampant]

Arms of Eastwood Town Council, England

Granted 1951

Blazon: Lozengy argent and sable, on a chief or an annulet of the second between two torteaux

Crest: On a wreath or and gules in front of a wheel issuant therefrom a mount sable lozengy argent rising therefrom in its flames a phoenix proper

Mantling: Gules lined or

Motto: We seek the best

The annulet is derived from the Plumtree arms, and the torteaux from the Greys of Codnor. The black diamonds and the flames in the crest are intended to symbolize coal mining and the energy derived from it. The wheel is a reference to the town's history with the Midland Counties Railway, which was initiated in Eastwood in 1832.

[griffinrampant]

Arms of Marie de'Medici (1575-1672)

Blazon: Per quarterly I and IV o five torteaux in orle, in chief a roundel of France (Medici), II and III gules a fess argent (Austria)

These are Marie's arms from before her marriage. In a classic example of quartering, the first and fourth quarters display the arms of her father, Francesco I de'Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, while the second and third come from her mother, Archduchess Joanna of Austria. Since both parents were armigers, all of their children would have been entitled to bear their arms quartered. Upon marrying King Henry IV of France, she would have quartered his arms in the first and fourth quarters with the above arms in the second and third.

[griffinrampant]

Former arms of the House of Medici (variation)

In use 1363? - 1465

Blazon: Or eight torteaux in orle

Another potential arrangement of the torteaux in the Medici arms.

[griffinrampant]

Former arms of the House of Medici

In use 1363? - 1465

Blazon: Or eight torteaux*

*Positioning of the torteaux seems to have been flexible; various depictions show them as 3, 3, and 2 or 1, 3, 3, and 1.

The alleged origin stories of the Medici arms are as entertaining as they are varied. One holds that one of the Medici ancestors was ennobled by Charlemagne after defeating a giant, and the torteaux represent the dents left on his shield. Another ties the arms to the family name; "medici" means "doctor," so this theory holds that they represent pills or glasses. A more boring, but more realistic, hypothesis points out that the arms of the Moneychanger's Guild are gules bezanté; the Medicis may simply have swapped the tinctures.

[griffinrampant]

Arms of the Earl of Kent from The Blazon of Gentrie by Sir John Ferne (1586) p243

Blazon: Barry of six argent and azure, in chief three torteaux

“Let me say this, that this coat-armor being Barry, is interpreted by some learned in blazon, to represent to the bearer, force, valour, courage, or wisdom, whereby he hath repelled any peril or danger imminent to his country or sovereign; the Barre... is taken in the like signification.”