Heraldic Articles Published in Print

lion-of-venice All these books and articles are available on this website, and may be downloaded for personal use. You may need to manipulate the zoom function, on the website or on your computer (ctrl+, ctrl- or cmd+,cmd-), to adjust the size for best viewing. In pdf view closing the left-hand panel may help also. All these articles are subject to my copyright, but permission to quote from them, or reprint them for non-commercial purposes, will be liberally granted. Inquire here.
  1. Heraldic Pleasures. This article, published in Flag Bulletin No. 226 in April 2009 (cover date Sep-Dec 2006), relates how I grew interested in this field and discusses the pleasures the study of heraldry offers. It sums up many years of thinking about this topic. Forty-seven pages; 27 illustrations.
  2. Designing My Flag. Published in the same issue of Flag Bulletin as item 1. It describes my method for designing a coat of rms, using my own arms as an example. Nine pages; six illustrations.
  3. Arthur Szyk: Heraldic Artist. Published by the Arthur Szyk Society in December 2010, as paper No. 5 in its Art History Publication Series. 12 pages; color illustrations throughout. The article interprets the heraldic work of this flag-birddistinguished artist, best known for his Judaica and anti-Fascist polemic art. For more information about Arthur Szyk, look here .
  4. Flag Imagery on Philatelic Covers. Published in the January 2012 issue of American Philatelist. Fourteen pages; color illustrations throughout. Philatelic covers are a rich and under-appreciated source of heraldic imagery; this article may serve as an introduction. For more on this topic, look here.
  5. L’imagerie des drapeaux sur des documents philatéliques. The same article as item 4, translated into French by Alain Bossard and published in the October 2012 issue (No. 309) of Philatélie Québec.
  6. Spanish-silver-eight-real-piece-of-Philip-VCoins as a Heraldic Resource. Published in December 2012 by Heraldry News, the journal of the Australian Heraldry Society (cover date March 2011). Twenty pages; 26 illustrations.
  7. The Flag Research Center Library. A brief appreciation of this great library, written at the request of the Center’s Director, the distinguished vexillologist Dr. Whitney Smith. It led the last issue of Flag Bulletin (No. 233, October 2011). Two pages.
  8. Flag Books, Real and Imagined. Also requested by Dr. Whitney Smith, and published in Flag Bulletin (No. 215, cover date Jan-Apr 2005). Two pages.
  9. Emblems of the Indian States. This book was published in 2011 by the Flag Heritage Foundation as No. 2 in their Monograph and Translation Series. emblems of the indian states Seventy-eight pages, including many text figures and pages of illustrations. The first work of its kind, it analyzes the emblems of the quasi-independent states of India before Independence, and establishes a classification system for them. The book may be read or downloaded free on the Foundation’s website, and it may be ordered here for $14.95 plus postage.
  10. The Double Eagle. Published in 2014 in the Flag Heritage Foundation Monograph and Translation Series. 160 pages, with 275 illustrations and an original map. The first work of its kind in English, it traces the history of the two-headed eagle as it appears in heraldry and culture over the past 800 years. The book may be seen and/or downloaded here.  It may also be ordered from Amazon at a highly subsidized price. 
  11. An Appreciation of Otto Hupp. Published in the September 2015 issue of The Heraldic Craftsman, the journal of the Society of Heraldic Arts . The article analyzes the work of the great German heraldic artist Otto Hupp (1859-1949), drawing mainly on images from the Münchener Kalender he published for fifty years. Kruger-GraySix pages and the cover, with illustrations in color.
  12. Heraldic Coin Designs of George Edward Kruger-Gray. Published in the April 2017 issue of The Heraldic Craftsman, the journal of the Society of Heraldic Arts. The article analyzes the numismatic work of the distinguished English heraldic artist George Edward Kruger-Gray (1880-1943), with 32 of his coins, 19 other illustrations, and four geometric diagrams. Sixteen pages including three pages of notes. 
  13. Understanding Japanese Heraldry. The lead article in Japanese Heraldry and Heraldic Flags (2018). This presents a new, blazon-based approach to Japanese mōn, making their understanding and description clear for the first time to European-trained heraldists. The article covers the grammar and vocabulary of Japanese heraldry systematically and in detail; also provided are a preface, a literature review, English blazons of daimyō flags, and a new glossary of English blazon for Japanese heraldry. Sample pages may be seen here. The book itself may be ordered from Amazon at a highly subsidized price.
  14. Assuming Arms: A Modest Proposal. Published in the August 2018 issue of The Heraldic Craftsman, the journal of the Society of Heraldic Arts. This article proposes a reform in the British heraldic system, which now restricts arms to those granted by authority, and requires differencing family arms borne by family members. I show how a freer system would work better and would raise the level of British heraldic art.
  15. A Heraldic Favourite. The editor of The Heraldic Craftsman asked some writers for their “favourite piece of heraldry in whatever medium with a paragraph on it and/or why chosen.” This was my contribution. It was published in the August 2018 issue.

Editor:

  1. The Estonian Flag: A Hundred Years of the Blue-Black-White (2010). By Karl Aun. First English translation of his monograph on the history of the Estonian flag, with his account of stealing the original flag from the National Museum and keeping it from the Russians until 1991. Full text on the Foundation’s website.
  2. History of the Haitian Flag of Independence (2013). By Odette Roy Fombrun.  First English translation of this study, by a noted Haitian scholar, of the development of the Haitian flag during its earliest days. Full text on the Foundation’s website.
  3. Flags and Uniforms of the Oxford College Rowing Societies (2015). Reprint of an illustrated pamphlet published in London in the 1830s. Prepared for the 26th International Congress of Vexillology meeting in Sydney, Australia. Full text on the Foundation’s website.
  4. Flags and Emblems of Colombia (2016). By Pedro Julio Dousdebés. First English translation of this 1937 study by a Colombian general, on the development of the flag and arms of Colombia from colonial days forward. With many added illustrations and six color plates. Sample pages may be seen here. 
  5. Japanese Heraldry and Heraldic Flags (2018). The lead article contains is a new, blazon-based approach to grammar and vocabulary of Japanese mōn. Also provided are a preface, a literature review, English blazons of daimyō flags, and a new glossary of English blazon for Japanese heraldry. The book also contains well-illustrated articles by Emmanuel Valerio and Nozomi Kariyasu on Japanese heraldic flags of the samurai period and the present day. 160 pages + 16 color plates and color covers; 38 color images and over 1000 black and white text figures. Sample pages may be seen here. The book itself may be ordered from Amazon at a highly subsidized price.

Bonus:

  1. Click here to see an interview on flag design I gave to Atlas Obscura.
  2. The Coronation Durbar of 1911. About the spectacular ceremony in Delhi where the recently-crowned King George V went to receive the submission of the ruling princes in person. Published in the Winter 1976 issue of Horizon, under the awful title “High Noon for the Empire,” which they substituted for my original title without asking me. I have changed it back.