Elendil’s Heir and I have been trying to figure something out.
Here’s Catherine Parr’s arms, courtesy of wikipedia.
So, three things:
what the heck is the sinister supporter supposed to be?
is it fire-breathing, or are those orange things just weird antlers?
how would you describe its trippy colour scheme?
I’ve not found a description on the English wikipedia, but did find one on French wikipedia. Unfortunately, it just describes the shield, and doesn’t mention the supporters:
Not an expert, but enough interest in the topic (and the related topic of legendary beasts) to answer this part…
It’s a panther, though they’re usually spotted, or else solid.
And the second part - it’s flames, though the use of flames in heraldic panthers probably started as representations of the sweet smelling gas the legendary panther was believed to use to attract prey.
Couldn’t begin to figure out how to describe his colours, though.
It’s properly blazoned a “Panther, incensed” but it’s definitely some kind of panther like **Neko **said, but I can’t tell what the hell is up with the colour scheme - multicoloured spots*are common, this is the only *stripey *panther I’ve ever seen.
I’d blazon it somewhat similar to “a panther, incensed, bendy sinister of azure, gules, vert and argent” and hope that caught it. Although I might have to invent the term ribandy sinister. Luckily, the Rule of Tincture doesn’t apply to supporters.
Compare the lion of the Ludovingians (“barry argent and gules”) or the funky supporters on thearms of Long. (that’s “goutty de sang” or “rain of blood”)
Heraldic rainbows sometimes have 4 colourful stripes, but never that combo.
Kamino Neko and MrDibble have done the difficult bit in identifying it as a panther. But, as noted, the puzzle is its stripiness. Various prominent Tudor families, including the Seymours, used panthers as heraldic supporters, but those usually had multi-coloured spots.
But there are hints of stripes in the few depictions of Catherine Parr’s arms with supporters. In this armorial binding, the pattern on the panther (left/dexter) does look more stripy, perhaps even spots arranged in strips, although unfortunately the colours have faded. (The animal on the right (sinister) is a wyvern, which also appeared on her brother’s arms.) Also, although known only from an eighteenth-century engraving, the panther on her seal as queen seems to have had dotted stripes. (Note that the text beneath the engraving is puzzled by what it shows and that the BM is surely wrong in supposing that it was a unicorn!)
This? This right here? This is why I love the Dope. Thanks, all!
Nice find: “What animal is the ſiniſter ſupporter of the ſhield is not eaſy to determine” indeed. It’s a panther, but the more horsey/draconian earlier form - like the example given from Raglan.
ETA -these guys (pdf) seem to think it’s just striped in the royal livery colours.
Now that there’s sort of an answer, can I ask… what was the topic that led you to Catherine Parr’s coat of arms?
(My family has always been interested in the Tudors, and my sister is currently on a reading binge focusing on both the Tudors and the War of the Roses.)
Are we quite entirely certain that it’s not coloured proper?
You almost have it. It’s really colored paper. Some one drew the panther on Christmas wrapping. The chain and crown are a stylized ribbon and bow. So it’s a Christmas present. That explains it all.
Next Queen re-issue album cover.
They had psychedelics back then, didn’t they?
Yes, ergot.
FWIW, I’ve done a bunch of research on this to hunt down this mythical beast, so to speak. Not exactly helpful but it might be of interest?
First, I dug up the artist who crafted the image for wikipedia, with the username “Sodacan,” who specializes in heraldry. Here’s his userpage with a table of all the six wives’ coats of arms.
For Parr, he goes into very detailed description of the image, and I won’t copy all his text, but for the sinister figure, he refers to it as “a panther incensed, striped with various colours, gorged with a coronet of crosses patée and fleurs de lys alternately and chained Or.”
Curious as to the source he used to create the image, I checked his footnotes/references, which took me to Thomas Willament’s Regal Heraldry: The armorial insignia of the Kings and Queens of England (1821). Luckily it’s available on Google book search (and is of course in the public domain).
From the book:
Heh. That last line sounds like a Straight Dope article.
So now there’s the source article, in the anthology Archeologia by J.C. Brooke (1777). It includes this b/w engraving, which (since it lacks color) doesn’t really help as far as why the colors are so psychedelic on the sinister animal. (BTW, am I the only person who finds it weird that the “sinister” side being described is on the right?)
Interestingly, Brooke doesn’t find it any more recognizable:
Full cite: Archeologia, “The Great Seal of Katherine Parr,” by J.C. Brooke, 29th April, 1777. By the way, the name “Catherine/Katherine” is spelled with both a C and a K in these sources.
You can read the whole book at Google books.
Okiedoke. And finally, if you want a semi-colored version of Parr’s Heraldry as of 1544–an image that, I notice, is not quite the same thing as the royal version as wife of Henry VIII (e.g., the panther’s on the opposite side, and the other animal is a wyvern, not the royal lion)–it’s available from a velvet appliqued copy of Petrarch, owned by the queen, and visible on the “historic artifacts” page from this extensive wiki devoted to The Tudors tv series, (about 1/4 down the page).
The beast in question is actually on the dexter/right side (which, again, looks like the left, but whatevs…) and is simply described by the site owner as “an animal breathing flame, and gorged with a coronet from which hangs a long chain, all worked in coloured silks on linen and applique, belongs to the Fitzhugh family, the coat of which is shown on the third quarter (Catherine’s grandmother was Hon. Elizabeth FitzHugh).”
Despite the lack of much color in the image, you can see that it’s striped in what they call a " bend sinister," which is evident in the Wikipedia version.
And… that’s all I’ve got. Whew. Hope this is helpful or at least not unhelpful. 
It’s a shield. When you’re holding a shield correctly, then dexter and sinister are in their proper places.
But only from the vantage point of the person holding the shield (and thus not actually actually seeing it), right? To someone looking at you, it’s the other 'way round. At least it is in my head. Seems a curious way to think of things.
>> it’s striped in what they call a " bend sinister," <<
Something in the dim recesses of my memory says a “bend sinister” indicated an illegitimate birth?
The coat of arms belongs to the holder of the shield. I guess that that is the reason to describe things from his/her point of view. A bit perhaps like how, in theater directions, “stage left” or “stage right” are from the point of view of the actors, not the public.
Ooh that’s interesting, because in my travels I learned that Catherine’s family side of the arms comes down from her great-great grandfather (!), William FitzHugh, 4th Baron FitzHugh–the Fitz part usually indicating some illegitimate connection to royalty somewhere in the past. You can see the FitzHugh yellow/blue diamond pattern in the lower right (or I guess I should say left) of the, um, escutcheon (she said after frantically looking up the names for the crazy number of all these constituent parts).
(William FitzHugh’s granddaughter, Elizabeth married to William Parr. Her son, Thomas, was Catherine’s dad. (Whew, I knew we’d get to her eventually))
Oh… okay, the performing side of me can see it like that. I guess I’m just so used to seeing these things from our POV that it didn’t occur to me that the terms would refer to the owner’s POV. Thanks!
Usually, that’d be a bendlet sinister, a narrower version of the bend sinister.
The usage predates the use of heraldry, and comes from military training. When heraldry came in, they used the existing terms.
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