Cartouche

Cartouche, the name given by Champollion to the ovals on monuments and in papyri on which the hieroglyphic characters for the names of Egyptian kings are inscribed. In architecture, cartouche signifies a tablet, either for ornament or to receive an inscription, so formed as to resemble a sheet of paper or parchment, with the edges and ends rolled up. The same term is applied to modillions, or brackets supporting a cornice, and, in heraldry, to the oval escutcheon of an ecclesiastic.