Post Your Granted, Assumed or Desired Arms

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

If I could have my druthers...

Coat of Arms: Azure, a fess raguly gules between in chief, a cross moline sable between two ravens observant of the same, and in base a bear rampant of the third.

Crest: A gryphon passant sable, holding a sword proper

Motto: Ego planto mea fortuna (I make my own fate.)

Unfortunatley this won't fly, because it violates the first rule of armoury; that being that you can not place colour upon colour. If you change the shield from azure (blue) to or (gold) or argent (silver) then you are off and away!

[JSFMACLJR]

If I could have my druthers...

Coat of Arms: Azure, a fess raguly gules between in chief, a cross moline sable between two ravens observant of the same, and in base a bear rampant of the third.

Crest: A gryphon passant sable, holding a sword proper

Motto: Ego planto mea fortuna (I make my own fate.)

Two comments:
1. Why a fess raguly?
2. You have broken a cardinal rule of heraldry, by placing a colour upon another colour. Either the field should be a metal ( gold or silver ), and the fess a colour, or vice versa. If you changed the tincture of the field to Or or Argent, you could certainly keep the tinctures of the various charges Sable.

[JSFMACLJR]

Ha! Rathdown and I caught the error at the same time!

[WVHighlander]

I said if I had my druthers.

I was going to go with argent in the field however, the over-emphasis of silver as representing peace. However, if I were to follow the traditional rules I would substitute the Azure for Argent...

I went for blue to represent strength.

[Cygnus]

Unfortunatley this won't fly, because it violates the first rule of armoury; that being that you can not place colour upon colour. If you change the shield from azure (blue) to or (gold) or argent (silver) then you are off and away!

Or you could make it a fess raguly Gules fimbriated Argent (or Or).

Not something you see very often, but it would solve the problem.

[SlackerDrummer]

I said if I had my druthers.

I was going to go with argent in the field however, the over-emphasis of silver as representing peace. However, if I were to follow the traditional rules I would substitute the Azure for Argent...

I went for blue to represent strength.

There is no historical basis for the colors on a coat of arms representing any particular virtues.

Or you could make it a fess raguly Gules fimbriated Argent (or Or).

Not something you see very often, but it would solve the problem.

Not quite. There is the matter of the other charges which would still be black on blue.

[Mike_Oettle]

My family has used a particular coat of arms for centuries (not only in South Africa but also in Württemberg), but we cannot prove a blood connection with the family that actually owns it (who live in Franconia, that is to say northern Bavaria).
So I altered the layout of the shield and changed the crest, coming up with this:

I plan to register it in Pretoria, but don’t have the means at the moment.
Regards,
Mike

[Cygnus]

...
Not quite. There is the matter of the other charges which would still be black on blue.

Yes, I'm not sure what to do about the ravens - they just wouldn't be the same if they weren't sable.

Maybe divide the shield per-fess argent and azure?

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Ha! Rathdown and I caught the error at the same time!

First past the post!

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

There is no historical basis for the colors on a coat of arms representing any particular virtues.

The idea that colours are allegorical and imbued with symbolic meaning reaches back well before heraldry became common across Europe (or the Russian film maker Eisenstein wrote extensively on colour in the 1940s). The concept popped up from time to time, and most students of heraldry and armoury are aware of Richard Robinson, who in 1583, came up with the following attributes of tinctures woven into a poem based on the Arthurian romance Le Devise des Armes de Chevaliers de la Table Ronde, which was written about 1546; here's a sample:

OR signifies the four virtues of nobleness, good will,vigour, and magnanimity;
ARGENT signifies the five virtues of humility, beauty, putiry, clarity, and innocence;
GULES signifies valiance;
AZURE signifies renown and beauty;
SABLE signifies mourning and sorrow;
VERT (sinople in the poem) signifies honour, love, and courtesy;
PURPURE signifies moderation and the virtues of liberality, abundance, and richness;

Precious stones were also used to denote tinctures for blazon in the 15th and 16th centuries; as far as I am aware it was last used by the College of Arms (quite appropriately in my opinion) to blazon a grant of arms to the Gemmological Association of Great Britain in 1967.