[Job Overbeek]

I recently purchased myself a new fencing mask for HEMA, and because I want to customize the mesh with a nice emblem I was wondering if anybody here has a good site for me with lots of emblems because I really can't find one and my imagination is completely to find a nice but not too elaborate one. (And my paint skills suck so I can't design one myself).

[Christopher VaughnStrever]

I found this page that has some good links, check on some of these.. http://www.larsdatter.com/rolls-of-arms.htm

there are some here, but a few more broken links on this page.. http://s-gabriel.org/heraldry/english.shtml

This link here is a nice source since there seems to be some really decent info about the heraldry on the left of the page.. http://bodley30.bodley.ox.ac.uk:8180/luna/ser...l-s-Roll--

And this page has quite a few of them (you have to click the little red circles).. http://www.angelfire.com/empire/medheraldry/webpage4.html

if you want to find more, try some key words such as "roll of Arms" "college of arms MS" or "Armorial Bearings" or possibly "Hyghalmen roll"

I hope this points you in the direction you were looking

[Sjors B]

http://www.heraldique-europeenne.org/Armoriaux/Gelre/F89v.htm#14

one of the largest collections i know.
This site is based on armorial bearings gathered by the heralds of Guelre (netherlands) allmost all of them are identified

[Eric W. Norenberg]

Hi Job,
I'm going to chime in here, not because I'm a great authority on heraldry, but rather as an occasionally serious student of the same.

The thing about heraldry is, that it is like a trademark, in the modern sense of trademark. It is intended to identify an individual or an allied group of individuals, both for practical purposes (battlefield ID'ing) and as a sign of solidarity or belonging. So... if you do paint your helmet with a more-or-less complete design from a historical roll, it would be worth also learning a little bit about the person who bore those arms in the first place. Just so that, when someone asks, you have a response.

I'm going to guess, from your last name, that you are Dutch or of Dutch descent, yes? You probably know that, unlike England and Scotland, where the bearing of arms is highly regulated, on a very real legal level even today, the Low Countries have always had a tradition of allowing anybody to adopt arms. Wealthier noble folk had professionally designed arms that would appear on rolls, but many common folk designed their own both as status symbols (the up-and-coming merchant class) and as property identifiers and marks of trade. That tradition continues today.

Most towns had and still have some kind of civic badge or arms as well. You could probably find something in your family history to pull inspiration from, maybe some place of origin, that might provide ideas for tinctures/metals (colors) and ordinaries/charges (shapes and symbols). Even if you just dash on a tincture and a metal, with a simple division or bend or whatever, you could pretty easily come up with something you can lay a bit of personal claim to. If you don't feel artistically capable or inspired, keeping to a basic color choice and division line can give you grounds to build on later.

Okay, lecture over. I don't usually recommend WikiPedia, as they aren't always reliable, but their basic info on heraldry seems to be in agreement with the more accredited authors I've read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraldry#The_rules_of_heraldry

Let us know how it goes! You are welcome to shoot me a PM if you have ideas you'd like to get opinions on. As I said, I'm no expert, but we might learn something together.

Eric

[David Gaál]

Try Johann Siebmacher Wappenbuch.