House Marks and Monogrammes
Bumerke (plural: bumerker), rarely spelled bomerke, are house marks with some relations to coats of arms, as they were frequently used instead of arms and often displayed within an escutcheon or a shield. Like coats of arms, they were often used on private seals and signet rings. Coats of arms consist of coloured fields whilst house marks consist of simple lines only, suitable for carving on e.g. wooden utensils. They are renditions of very simple runic-like letters and other graphic symbols which signify a specific person or family. They may be passed down through generations with some changes from person to person. This custom has mostly died out. Before literacy became widespread, a bumerke would often be used instead of a signature.
Some bumerkes consist of monogrammes which are owner's name initials. Most bumerkes are not monogrammes, and a monogramme is not automatically a bumerke. However, monogrammes were often used for the same purposes as bumerkes, e.g. when signing documents or marking personal belongings.
Read more about this topic: Norwegian Heraldry
Famous quotes containing the words house and/or marks:
“The shifting islands! who would not be willing that his house should be undermined by such a foe! The inhabitant of an island can tell what currents formed the land which he cultivates; and his earth is still being created or destroyed. There before his door, perchance, still empties the stream which brought down the material of his farm ages before, and is still bringing it down or washing it away,—the graceful, gentle robber!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches, which in their eyes is never so complete as when they appear to possess those decisive marks of opulence which nobody can possess but themselves.”
—Adam Smith (1723–1790)