Heraldic Knot

A heraldic knot (referred to in heraldry as simply a knot) is a knot, unknot, or design incorporating a knot used in European heraldry. While a given knot can be used on more than one family's achievement of arms, the family on whose coat the knot originated usually gives its name to the said knot (the exception being the Tristram knot). These knots can be used to charge shields and crests, but can also be used in badges or as standalone symbols of the families for whom they are named (like Scottish plaids). The simplest of these patterns, the Bowen knot, is often referred to as the heraldic knot in symbolism and art outside of heraldry.

Heraldic knots
  • Bourchier knot
  • Bowen knot
  • Cavendish knot
  • Dacre knot
  • Harrington knot
  • Hastings knot
  • Heneage knot
  • Hinckaert knot
  • Hungerford knot
  • Lacy knot
  • Medici knot
  • Morvillier knot
  • Ormonde knot
  • Savoy knot
  • Shakespeare knot
  • Stafford knot
  • Trafford knot
  • Tristram knot
  • Wake knot


Famous quotes containing the words heraldic and/or knot:

    “His ugliness was the stuff of legend. In an age of affordable beauty, there was something heraldic about his lack of it. The antique arm whined as he reached for another mug. It was a Russian military prosthesis, a seven-function force-feedback manipulator, cased in grubby pink plastic.”
    —William Gibson (b. 1948)

    “O time, thou must untangle this, not I.
    It is too hard a knot for me t’untie.”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)