Note 1 — Chapter I · INTRODUCTORY

In his “Hand-book of Engraved Gems,” Mr. King maintains that “the devices on the signets of the ancients were both hereditary and unalterable, like our armorial bearings;” but, at the same time, he admits that the “armorial bearings,” which appear “on the shields of the Grecian heroes in the most ancient pictures extant, the Vase-paintings,” “seem to have been assumed at the caprice of the individual, like the knight’s cognisances at tournaments in the days of chivalry, and not to have been hereditary.”—“Hand-book,” page 216. Almost immediately, however, Mr. King adds, that traditions exist which represent the mythic heroes bearing “engraved on their signets the same devices that decorated their shields.” It would seem that the argument from such traditions would rather indicate the signet-devices to have been arbitrary, than the shield-devices to have been unalterable. While I readily admit the very interesting devices of antiquity to possess decided heraldic attributes, I cannot consider Mr. King to have shown that, as a general rule, they were held by the ancients themselves to have been either “unalterable” or “hereditary.” Possibly, further light may be thrown upon the hereditary quality of ancient Heraldry: but, I certainly do not expect to see any evidence adduced, which would establish a line of descent connecting the Mediæval Heraldry of England with any heraldic system of classic antiquity.