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The Statham Coat of Arms

To keep a copy of the Coat of Arms, right click the image and choose to save the picture from the menu.

Crests and coats of arms were mainly used for identification pre 12th Century. The use of surnames came about for the legal reasons of tenancy and tax payment. See the fact and fable page for my interpretation of the Statham crest and arms.

Crest:
Argent a bend sable between two cotises dancettee gules (any ideas?)

Coat of Arms
A greyhounds head erased gules.

Ths Statham family crest appeared meaningless at a first glance. To try and give some definition to what they are describing I took a look at Dictionary.com.

Dictionary.com - Erased:

erased \E*rased"\, p. pr. & a. 1. Rubbed or scraped out; effaced; obliterated.

(Her.) Represented with jagged and uneven edges, as is torn off; -- used esp. of the head or limb of a beast. Cf. Couped.

Dictionary.com - Gules:

gules \Gules\, n. [OE. goules, F. gueules, the same word as gueule throat, OF. gole, goule, L. gula. So named from the red color of the throat. See Gullet, and cf. Gula.] (Her.) The tincture red, indicated in seals and engraved figures of escutcheons by parallel vertical lines. Hence, used poetically for a red color or that which is red.

His sev'n-fold targe a field of gules did stain In which two swords he bore; his word, ``Divide and reign.'' --P. Fletcher.

Curiously, many places have this description for the Coat of Arms rather than the crest. The Statham Coat of Arms [click to view the full-size image]. After much searching to find a copy of this CoA, I gave into the money-spinners and purchased the image instead [you don't want to know how much it cost for an image!], so here is the Statham Coat of Arms free for your use [I recommend you save the larger version if you are going to use it for your own projects].

My Interpretation:
Before seeing the image for the first time iI tried to imagine what it would look like, given the descriptions above, I came up with "A greyhounds head erased gules = A greyhounds head showing blood from its jagged throat ... imagery of a blood seated dog's head doesn't appeal as a family representation." Thankfully, that's not what the description meant, tho, the greyhound looks more vicious than any dog of it's kind I've encoutered!

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