In ancient times crest and mottoes may have been used by all, but with the passing of the centuries some have been omitted or forgotten, and no records of these have survived.

True heraldry, as distict from the tribal emblems and insignia used by warriors in ancient times, began in the 11th and 12th centuries in Europe and England respectively.

So well developed had heraldry become by the 13th century that it acquired the rules and terminology which are the basis of its present laws and language. The specialists in this field became known as heralds.

With the suppression of private armies, and the gradual disappearance in the 16th century of both tournaments and closed helmets, the sporting and military uses of heraldry became less important and it became rather a decorative art. Coats-of-Arms were carved over doorways, woven or tapestries, placed in stained glass windows and engraved on silver.

This loss of contact with reality led to an extravagance and incongruity of design during the 16th and 17th centuries, but renewed study of early armory, which began in the Victorian age, has brought about a revival of simple, spirited heraldic design.

Today, the herald's work is symbolic and decorative, and is concerned mainly with family, corporate, civic heraldry.

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