As reported by the New York Times:
The regal emblem, used at President Trump’s golf courses across the United States, sports three lions and two chevrons on a shield, below a gloved hand gripping an arrow...More on the kerfuffle at the link.
The British are known to take matters of heraldry seriously, and Mr. Trump’s American coat of arms belongs to another family. It was granted by British authorities in 1939 to Joseph Edward Davies, the third husband of Marjorie Merriweather Post, the socialite who built the Mar-a-Lago resort that is now Mr. Trump’s cherished getaway...
In the United States, the Trump Organization took Mr. Davies’s coat of arms for its own, making one small adjustment — replacing the word “Integritas,” Latin for integrity, with “Trump.”...
“It couldn’t be a clearer-cut case, actually,” said Clive Cheesman, one of the college’s heralds, who oversee coats of arms, their design and their use.“A coat of arms that was originally granted to Joseph Edward Davies in 1939 by the English heraldic authority ended up being used 10 or 15 years ago by the Trump Organization as part of its branding for its golf clubs,” said Mr. Cheesman, a lawyer by training.
With a tip of the blogging hat to the elves at QI for alerting me to this interesting item.
If Trump was Polish, then this might not be a problem.
ReplyDeleteIntegrity has been replaced with Trump.
ReplyDeletePortentous and depressingly accurate.
Depending on his wife's heritage, the mister may be entitled to use her coat of arms, legitimately.
ReplyDeletePlaying the devils' advocate for a moment, this would appear to be the coat of arms of Mar-a-Lago... so, given my understanding of heraldic traditions, altering the name on the motto but keeping the arms themselves the same isn't completely unreasonable. I know, someone out there with better understanding will probably correct me if I'm wrong.
ReplyDeleteNot that I support much of anything about the Oompa-Loompa-in-Chief, but this seems to be rather a tempest in a teapot.
My understanding is that coats-of-arms are granted to persons (and to their lineal descendants).
Delete"It was granted by British authorities in 1939 to Joseph Edward Davies, the third husband of Marjorie Merriweather Post, the socialite who built the Mar-a-Lago resort."
He built the resort, but the coat-of-arms is his, not the resort's. It doesn't "stay" with the resort and belong to the new owner.
If you think it's a tempest in a teapot, try taking the logo from the Apple computer you own or the Starbuck's coffee cup you bought, declare it your own, modify it minimally and use it and see what happens.