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32-535: The Franconian Rake is an heraldic ordinary with a simple zig-zag line of partition that divides the escutcheon or shield into red and silver fields. This simple and regionally widespread symbol was first officially recognised as the Franconian coat of arms in 1804 when Prince Elector Maximilian IV Joseph incorporated it into the Bavarian coat of arms . The colour "Franconian red" ( German : Franken-Rot ) used for

64-517: A London publisher. Much of the material in this book was re-used in a shorter, cheaper and more popular exposition of contemporary English heraldic practice, A Complete Guide to Heraldry , which proved very successful and influential. This too has been reprinted several times. Even the still shorter Heraldry Explained balanced a clear and didactic text with plentiful illustration. Fox-Davies's emphasis on practical and officially authorised heraldry caused him to showcase mostly recent grants of arms. This

96-419: A hole in the shape of the charge reveals the field behind it. Occasionally the hole is of different tincture or shape (which must then be specified), so that the charge appears to be surcharged with a smaller charge. Arthur Charles Fox-Davies Arthur Charles Fox-Davies (28 February 1871 – 19 May 1928) was a British expert on heraldry . His Complete Guide to Heraldry , published in 1909, has become

128-614: A seal for the city of Gerolzhofen . The Franconian Rake was initially chosen by the Bishops of Würzburg as a symbol of their (albeit rather nominal) Franconian ducal status . It was however not a symbol for Franconia as a whole, as the former stem duchy had ceased to exist as an administrative entity a long time ago. From 1835 the Rake appeared in the coat of arms of Bavaria ; referring to the East Franconian regions which had been incorporated into

160-517: A standard work on heraldry in England. A barrister by profession, Fox-Davies worked on several notable cases involving the peerage, and also worked as a journalist and novelist. Arthur Charles Davies (known as Charlie) was born in Bristol , the second son of Thomas Edmond Davies (1839–1908) and his wife Maria Jane Fox, the daughter and co-heiress of alderman John Fox, JP . Fox-Davies was brought up from

192-593: Is also part of the large armorial achievements of the Free State of Bavaria and of Baden-Württemberg. Ordinary (heraldry) In heraldry , an ordinary is one of the two main types of charges , beside the mobile charges . An ordinary is a simple geometrical figure, bounded by straight lines and running from side to side or top to bottom of the shield . There are also some geometric charges known as subordinaries , which have been given lesser status by some heraldic writers, though most have been in use as long as

224-533: The College of Arms . In support of this campaign, he produced a directory which attempted to list all living bearers of arms in England and Wales who could prove such authority, under the title Armorial Families . This served as an incentive to families who had not got such authority to regularise their position at the College of Arms and the size of the work increased considerably until its final edition in 1929, which remains

256-598: The Franconian Rake derives from its appearance, which superficially resembles a flotsam filter or "flotsam rake" ( German : Treibgutrechen ), and it was therefore probably used as an emblem for villages based around timber-rafting facilities which grew up as a result of the transportation of logs by river. The Franconian Rake is first recorded in the early 14th century on the grave of the Würzburg Prince-bishop, Wolfram Wolfskeel von Grumbach (d. 1333), and in

288-543: The Surrey and South London Sessions. He also prepared printed cases for peerage cases in the House of Lords . He married in 1901 Mary Ellen Blanche Crookes (1870–1935), daughter and coheiress of Septimus Wilkinson Crookes and Anne Blanche Harriet Proctor. They had a son, Harley Edmond Fitzroy Fox-Davies (1907–1941), and a daughter, Moyra de Somery Regan. His wife worked as an heraldic artist, often for her husband's publications, under

320-635: The article on "Heraldry" in the Catholic Encyclopedia . Politically Conservative , Fox-Davies "quite hopelessly" stood for election as a member of parliament for Merthyr Tydfil in 1910, 1923 and 1924. He was, however, elected as a member of Holborn Borough Council in London. Fox-Davies lived at 65 Warwick Gardens in Kensington , London, and had chambers at 23, Old Buildings, Lincoln's Inn. He died, aged 57, of portal hypertension and cirrhosis of

352-512: The coat of arms is HKS no. 14. The shape of the rake represents the holism of heaven and earth and was thus used by church bodies, such as the Bishopric of Würzburg , as a seal or in their coats of arms. Its three upward or heaven-facing points symbolise the Trinity of God, while its four downward or earthward-facing points represent the four points of the compass on earth. The present name of

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384-473: The continuing popularity of his books with the general public and with expert heraldists alike. One of his admirers in the next generation was John Brooke-Little , Norroy and Ulster King of Arms and founder of the Heraldry Society, who edited a new edition of The Complete Guide to Heraldry and in many ways propagated similar, albeit somewhat less aggressively expressed, ideas. Fox-Davies never served as

416-671: The dexter claw a hammer proper"; those granted to John Fox were "per pale argent and gules, three foxes sejant counterchanged", with, for crest, a demi stag winged gules collared argent . Fox-Davies bore the Davies arms with a crescent for cadency , and intended to quarter them with the Fox arms after his mother's death; but as she outlived him, dying in 1937, this was not possible. He also considered obtaining grants to his wife's families of Crookes and Proctor, which would have entitled his children to additional quarterings, but at this point he no longer had

448-621: The early 1880s at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire, where his father worked for the Coalbrookdale Iron Company and had a house called "Paradise" which became his home in much of his adult life; his grandfather, Charles Davies of Cardigan in Wales, had been an ironmonger. He added his mother's maiden name to his own by deed poll on his nineteenth birthday in 1890, thereby changing his surname from Davies to Fox-Davies. In 1894, his father took

480-693: The field, but are formally considered objects on the field. Though there is some debate as to exactly which geometrical charges—with straight edges and running from edge to edge of the shield—constitute ordinaries, certain ones are agreed on by everyone. Except for the chief they are central to the shield. Ordinaries should not be mixed with Division of the field . The following are sometimes classed as ordinaries, sometimes as subordinaries (see below): Some geometric figures are not considered to be "honourable ordinaries" and are called "subordinaries". Very loosely, they are geometric or conventional charges that, unlike ordinaries, do not stretch from edge to edge of

512-544: The liver, having lain ill in his home for several weeks. He was buried at the parish church of Holy Trinity in Coalbrookdale . Fox-Davies's writing on heraldry is characterised by a passionate attachment to heraldry as art and history and also as law. He was something of a polemicist, and issued one of his most controversial works, The Right to Bear Arms , under the pseudonym X . However, he always supported his arguments with specific historical and manuscript evidence. He

544-449: The money for further grants of arms. He did obtain, in 1921, the grant of a badge , which consisted of a crown vallary gules . His motto was Da Fydd , Welsh for "good faith" and a pun on the name Davies. In addition to his writings on heraldry, he published a number of works of fiction, including detective stories such as The Dangerville Inheritance (1907), The Mauleverer Murders (1907) and The Duplicate Death (1910). He authored

576-465: The most comprehensive published record (the records of the College of Arms being largely unpublished) of post-Victorian heraldry in Britain. Many of the arms were illustrated with specially commissioned heraldic drawings, and Fox-Davies drew on this large resource when illustrating his more systematic treatises on heraldry. The most lavish of these was The Art of Heraldry: An Encyclopædia of Armory , which

608-458: The newly established Kingdom of Bavaria after the German mediatization of 1803. Only at this point did it become a symbol for the whole of Franconia in the public consciousness. Today the emblem is found as part of the coat of arms of many administrative bodies in the Franconian region e.g. the Bavarian provinces of Upper , Middle and Lower Franconia , as well as in adjacent districts covering

640-404: The ordinaries (and occasionally collections of charges), and consists in placing the ordinary between two diminutive versions of itself (and occasionally other things). A pale so treated is usually blazoned endorsed and a chevron very occasionally couple closed or between two couple closes. A chief, however, cannot be cottised. The ordinary and its cottices need not have the same tincture or

672-422: The ordinary, as follows. The cottise (the spelling varies—sometimes only one t and sometimes c instead of the s ) originated as an alternative name to cost (see above) and so as a diminutive of the bend, most commonly found in pairs on either side of a bend, with the bend being blazoned either as between two cottises or as cottised . Nowadays cottising is used not just for bends but for practically all

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704-470: The pseudonym "C. Helard". Neither the Fox nor the Davies families were armigerous, so in 1905, when Fox-Davies was 34 and already well-advanced in his career as a writer on heraldic and genealogical subjects, he organised posthumous grants of arms to both his grandfathers. The arms granted to Charles Davies were sable, a demi sun in splendour issuant in base or, a chief dancetée of the last , with, for crest, "a demi dragon rampant gules collared or, holding in

736-411: The same line ornamentation. Ordinaries very occasionally get cottised by things shaped quite differently from their diminutives—like demi maple leaves. Occasionally a collection of charges aligned as if on an ordinary— in bend , etc.—is accompanied by cotticing. Any type of charge, but probably most often the ordinaries and subordinaries, can be "voided"; without further description, this means that

768-574: The same course for himself and the rest of the family. Fox-Davies attended Ackworth School in Yorkshire, but was expelled in 1884 at the age of fourteen, after hitting one of the schoolmasters. He received no further formal education, but was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1901 and called to the bar in 1906. As a barrister, he practised on the South Eastern Circuit, at the Old Bailey , and at

800-490: The shield. There is no definitive list or definition, but they generally include: Fixed subordinaries are those that have a particular place to go on a shield—or at least a very limited range of places. Other subordinaries can be placed anywhere on the field. Ordinaries need not be bounded by straight lines. When a coat of arms contains two or more of an ordinary, they are nearly always blazoned (in English) as diminutives of

832-423: The territory of the historic East Franconian lands, e.g. Main-Tauber-Kreis in the state of Baden-Württemberg or Hildburghausen in southern Thuringia , and many towns and villages, e.g. in the coat of arms of Volkach or Frankenhardt . So the Franconian Rake demonstrates an allegiance to the common heritage, although the Franconian lands have been split between many lords over the centuries. The Franconian Rake

864-476: The traditional ordinaries. Diminutives of ordinaries and some subordinaries are charges of the same shape, though thinner. Most of the ordinaries are theoretically said to occupy one-third of the shield; but this is rarely observed in practice, except when the ordinary is the only charge (as in the coat of arms of Austria ). The terms ordinary and subordinary are somewhat controversial, as they have been applied arbitrarily and inconsistently among authors, and

896-512: The use of these terms has been disparaged by some leading heraldic authorities. In his Complete Guide to Heraldry (1909), Arthur Charles Fox-Davies asserted that the terms are likely inventions of heraldic writers and not of heralds , arguing the "utter absurdity of the necessity for any [such] classification at all," and stating that the ordinaries and sub-ordinaries are, in his mind, "no more than first charges." Ordinaries (sometimes called " honourable ordinaries ") resemble partitions of

928-512: Was in contrast to the medieval emphasis of other scholars, of whom his most prominent critics were Oswald Barron , author of the celebrated article on heraldry in the 1911 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica , and Horace Round . Round, in an essay called "Heraldry and the Gent" (eventually published in his collection Peerage and Pedigree ), ridiculed another thesis with which Fox-Davies

960-538: Was originally conceived as an English translation of a German publication ( Ströhl 's Heraldischer Atlas ) but which was transformed, in Fox-Davies's hands, into a largely original work specifically directed to the history, theory and practice of English heraldry, with illustrations in black and white and in colour throughout. This large 500-page book was first published in 1904 and was re-issued in black and white only in 1976 by an American publisher and in 1986 in colour by

992-515: Was particularly associated, namely, that an English grant of arms was equivalent to a continental patent of nobility , and that, not only were all English armigers to that extent noblemen as well as gentlemen (if male), but that no one without an official right to bear a coat of arms could claim to be a gentleman at all. Fox-Davies's influence on English heraldry continued long after his death in 1928, not least because of his lawyerly insistence on backing his opinions with solid evidence, and because of

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1024-513: Was the editor of the Genealogical Magazine from 1895 to 1906. He conducted a lifelong campaign against the bearing of coats of arms without lawful authority in accordance with the Law of Arms , whether that authority was a right recognised at the visitations conducted by heralds in the 16th and 17th centuries or, more commonly, a right deriving from a specific grant entered in the records of

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