looking for house crests

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Amanda Geist" <editor at t...>
wrote:

> I will spare you my usual heraldry lecture about terminology. 

So I'll say it for you. "Crest" means only the little thing on top of
the helmet, such as the wizard's hat for Gryffindor, the eagle head
for Ravenclaw, snake head for Slytherin, running badger for
Hufflepuff, and Golden Snitch for Hogwarts. The thing Cindy kbmum is
looking for is called "shield of arms" or "coat of arms". I suspect
it's not the full "achievement of arms" because surely Hogwarts also
has supporters (probably winged boars as on the front gateposts).

I don't understand why the movie people felt compelled to behead the
poor eagle and snake used as the crests. I also have a theory that
wizarding heraldry has a rule, unknown to Muggle heralds, that a
person who earned arms by being a wizard or witch uses a wizard's hat
 INSTEAD of a helmet to sit on top of their shield. IIRC Fox-Davies
says a bishop gets a bishop's hat instead of a helmet, but doesn't get
a crest because there is no place on a bishop's hat to attach one.
That doesn't affect wizards: their crests can just levitate over their
hats.  

Cindy wanted to check the colors ["tinctures" to heralds], and I don't
know if she wanted to be just like the movie or to be accurate. If the
latter, the "H" is supposed to be purple, not black, and I was hoping
you'd comment on some other little things: the tinctures of the wreath
and mantling. (Note to Cindy et alia: originally the mantling was
kaffiyeh and the wreath was agal, copied by Crusaders to shade their
metal helmets from the hot sun shining on them, but they have become
the decorative curly lettuce leaves on achievements of arms.) IIRC the
mantling and crest are supposed to be the main color (red, blue,
green, black, purple) and the main metal (gold = yellow, silver =
white) of the shield. 

I suppose for Hogwarts, that would be gold and purple? These patches
show the wreath as all red and the mantling as all gold. Gryffindor's
should be red and gold, as its mantling is shown, but its wreath is
shown as all silver or all blue. Hufflepuff's should be gold and
black, not this blend of shades of brown. And here they go sticking a
red and silver wreath on Ravenclaw, whose color is definitely blue,
regardless of disputes about its metal: silver in the movie, 'bronze'
(gold) in the books.