Quote Originally Posted by MacMillan of Rathdown View Post
As Mark Twain once said, "There are two kinds of people in the world; good people and bad people. The problem arises because it's the good people who decide who's who." It's the same in heraldry. The standards that are applied have nothing to do with the quality of armoury, and everything to do with the governmental standing of the office that created that armorial achievement.
Another thought...sorry not to do this all in one message: this is very definitely not the view taken by the heraldic community on most of the Continent. In Poland for example, none of the arms of the Szlachta were originally granted by anyone, and no Polish noble would think more highly of a coat of arms for having been subsequently recorded by the Austro-Hungarian or Russian chancellery.