CoA William Shakespeare - Springfield, MA
Posted by: Metro2
N 42° 06.218 W 072° 35.102
18T E 699683 N 4664104
The stained glass windows at the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum were designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany and installed in 1895. Some of the windows pay homage to famous authors and this one honors Sir Francis Bacon.
Waymark Code: WMJB4B
Location: Indiana, United States
Date Posted: 10/22/2013
Views: 4
One of the windows honors William Shakespear and that window has a stained glass depiction of his Coat of Arms in a circular motif. The ates of Shakespeare's birth and death are set on either side of the Coat of Arms: 1564-1616.
This website (
visit link) has another image of the CoA and provides this description and history:
"The Shakespeare family made an application for the right to bear a Coat of Arms
The application cost 30 guineas
On October 20, 1596 permission from the Garter King of Arms was granted
John Shakespeare, and his children, had permission to display a coat-of-arms
The Shakespeare's were entitled to put "gentleman" after their name and the coat-of-arms could be displayed on their door and all their personal items
DESCRIPTION OF THE COAT OF ARMS
The description of the Coat of Arms grant to the Shakespeare family was as follows:
'Gold, on a bend (diagonal bar) sable (black), a spear of the first (i.e. gold), steeled argent (with a silver tip); and for his crest... a falcon his wings displayed argent (silver), standing on a wreath of his colours supporting a spear gold, steeled as aforesaid, (i.e. silver) set upon a helmet with mantles and tassles'
The motto was "Non sanz droict" or "Not without right"
The actual design of the crest design would have not formed part of the Heraldic Documentation
The Shakespeare family would have given the description and Heraldic Documentation to a designer
The designer would have then made an interpretation of the description and drawn a crest
The original crest design is not in existence so there are various interpretations of the Shakespeare Coat of Arms."
Another depiction of the CoA can be seen at (
visit link)