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The Honourable Company of Esquires
The Badge of an
Esquire of England:
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A Sagittarius Gules,
within an Escallop Argent set on his name or word.
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Members' Lapel Badge
[Free to new members]
Badge Size: 2.5 cm
high x proportional wide hard-enamel pin, background: sand-blasted
& polished silver, figure: red filled with butterfly
clutch/military clutch back.
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The
historical substance for the badge as adopted
and used by the Members of The Honourable Company of Esquires is
uncertain although reference to it is made by The Hon. Sir
George Bellew, KCVO, FSA, Garter King
of Arms who wrote in an article entitled Escallops in Armory (The
Scallop,
Shell Transport and Trading Company 1957) stating that the
Esquire's
Badge was "a device of some curiosity, which is depicted in Gerald
Leigh's Accedence of Armorie,
and which is therein inscribed ' a Sagittaire Geules, within and
Escalop Argent set on his name or worde. This is the badge of an
Esquire of England'."
Whether the badge was an invention of Gerald Leigh or was used in
antiquity is uncertain but it was certainly accepted and referred to as
a
badge by Sir George Bellew who, as Garter, was the Principal King of
Arms at the College of Arms. If it was good enough for Garter King of
Arms, it is good enough for us!
The scroll beneath the scallop shell is to
facilitate the inclusion of the armiger's name (or word) per the blazon.
The following is an extract from the article, mentioned above, by The
Hon. Sir
George Bellew, KCVO, FSA, Garter King
of Arms:
"It is curious that heraldry does not seem to take much notice of the
other principal symbolic connotation of the scallop shell, namely its
association in classical mythology with the goddess of love and beauty,
Venus. It was her shell because she was born of the sea, or 'foam born'
as it is prettily described in ancient literature, and was transported
to the shore in a sea-shell which, considering its convenient shape and
surpassing beauty, could hardly have been any other than a scallop
shell. Renaissance artists, like Botticelli, showed that in their time
the story had not been forgotten......
There are exceptions, however to the herald's apparent indifference to
this connotation of the shell. One is the 'Esquire's Badge', a device
of some curiosity, which is depicted in Gerald
Leigh's Accedence of Armorie,
and which is therein inscribed ' a Sagittaire Geules, within and
Escalop Argent set on his name or worde. This is the badge of an
Esquire of England'. It is clearly of the genre of shells associated in
ancient art with Venus, the 'beak' being downwards and the concave
interior of the shell, unlike St Jame's shell, being presented to our
view. Together with the centaur who, one may reasonably surmise,
represents equitation, he being as it were to the manor born, the
device speaks happily of the two arts in which no doubt all good young
esquires of England were once proficient! "
Esquire:
Historically a title of
rank.
Tables of precedence invariably ended with the ranks of Esquire and
Gentleman,
in that order.
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Honourable Company of Esquires
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