General Chat

My OH has found with his metal detector, but don't hold that against him :-), a medieval (he thinks probably 13th or 14th century) armorial pendant, about an inch or so high, it would probably have hung on the reins of a horse.

It has a coat of arms on it, probably originally enamelled although much of this is damaged.

We'd be very interested to know to whom it may have belonged, or at least whose coat of arms it bears, as presumably it could have been on the horse of a man at arms or servant.

It is shield shaped, the shield is divided into 2 by a straight horizontal bar. The background on both top and bottom sections looks like it would originally have been red, with the bar possibly being gold or silver. In the top section there are 3 birds, all facing left in one row of 3. In the bottom half there are also 3 birds, all facing left, in two rows, 2 birds above and 1 below. All 6 birds look like they would have been gold or silver as traces of this remain.

We are in Bucks and quite near the Black Prince's stomping ground!

Any information gratefully received. Sorry if we have not used the correct heraldic language, the only proper word that comes to my mind is sable but I think that was black!

Please bear with us if we don't reply straight away as it is nearing bath / bottle / bed time for our little boy.

Thank you

Helen

Helen there are a lot of good sites on the web.....some have pictures of coat of arms and heraldry trinkets.

Google uk will probably be the best.

Good luck
Gill

Take a look at the Lutrell coat of arms. This has a black diagonal bar on gold but the birds are in the opposite diagonals though - and they are from Somerset. Closest I found as yet.

thank you both, I've had a go at googling "heraldry" and "coat of arms" but haven't found anything as simple as a website with lots of pictures and names (maybe that's hoping too much), so I hoped that a heraldic expert or someone passionate about the subject might have the appropriate reference books and enjoy the puzzle, will keep looking but if anyone else can find a match I'd be very grateful

IF ITS THAT OLD CHANCES ARE THE FAMILY WERE LOCAL
WHERE DO YOU LIVE ..LOOK UP LOCAL HISTORY AND SEE WHO WAS SORT OF LORD OF THE MANOR

TRY BRITISH HISTORY ONLINE

My Dad's family come from Bucks, a few of them still lurking there, close to Buckingham.



i am not sure but think you can email programmes like Antique roadshow etc and their experts might help.

Let us know what you find out when you find the right place to look, Helen.

Lizx

we have tracked this down, thank you for all your suggestions

according to a Medieval Artefacts book we found lurking on our book shelf late last night, this is the coat of arms of William Beauchamp ca. 1308, there is an identical armorial pendant pictured in the book

I will google him and let you know what I find out about him

Helen

This is so interesting, let us know what you going to do next Helen.