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Roger,

From  A.C. Fox-Davies, A Complete Guide to Heraldry, pages 237-238:

 ... the eagle with one or two heads (there seems originally to have been little unanimity upon the point) seems to have become the recognised heraldic symbol of the Holy Roman Empire; ... The origin of the double-headed eagle has been the subjct of endless controversy, the tale one is usually taught to believe being that it originated in the dimidiation upon one shield of two separate coats of arms. Nisbet states that the Imperial eagle was "not one eagle with two heads, but two eagles, the one laid upon the other, and their heads separate, looking different ways, which represent the two heads of the Empire after it was divided into East and West." yadda yadda...

The then existing double-headed eagles of Austria and Russia probably supply the reason why, when the German Empire was created, the Prussian eagle in a modified form was preferred...


And pages 299-300:

Escallops rank as one of the most widely used heraldic charges in all countries. They figured in early days outside the limits of heraldry as the badge of pilgrims going to the Holy Land, and may be seen on the shield of many families at the period of the Crusades. Many other families have adopted them, in the hopes of a similar interpretation being applied to the appearance of them in their own arms. Indeed so numerous are the cases in which they occur that a few representative ones must suffice.

They will be found in the arms of the Lords Dacre, who bore: "Gules, three escallops argent;" and an escallop argent was used by the same family as a badge. The Scottish family of Pringle, of Greeneknowe, supplies an instance in: "Azure, three escallops or within a bordure engrailed of the last;" while the Irish Earls of Bandon bore: "Argent, on a bend azure three escallops of the field."

No identification or index to explain who Nisbet might be.


Hopefully this isn't old news.
Jean



On Mon, Nov 7, 2011 at 12:20 PM, Charlie Butler <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Bicephalous eagles to go with the bivalve molluscs? Maybe they had a history of twins.

C


On 7 November 2011 16:29, Colin Burrow <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

An idle google comes up with a link to this

http://www.archive.org/stream/visitationofcoun00stge/visitationofcoun00stge_djvu.txt

which is a terrible digitization of the Visitation of Somerset in 1623. If you search this text for ‘three escallops argent’ it appears that the first of the unidentifiable coats of arms might be that of John Ewens of Suddon, near Wincanton, who appears to have been granted arms in 1578. Quite what this small Somerset family might have got up to with bicephalous eagles, however, is beyond me.

Best wishes

 

Colin Burrow,

Senior Research Fellow,

All Souls College,

Oxford

OX1 4AL