Crest

Crest (Lat. crista, 'a comb or tuft'), a heraldic figure or ornament, which in its original use surmounted the helmet. Though often popularly regarded as the most important part of the heraldic insignia of a family, it is, in the eyes of heralds, an accessory without which the bearing is complete. The practice of ornamenting the helmet with a capriciously assumed figure existed in classical times; but no such usage is found in the early middle ages, or at the time when heraldry had its rise. Crests first appear occasionally on the helmets of knights in the 13th century, and were a mark of dignity and estate beyond what was implied by the use of arms. Edward III. was the first English king who assumed a crest; and crests are found in use by the early Knights of the Garter. The practice gradually spread, particularly in England, till the crest became the almost indispensable adjunct of a shield of arms, as it now is. On the Continent there are still many families of distinction who have never used a crest. The crest is generally placed on a wreath (see HERALDRY) of the principal metal and colour of the shield; sometimes it is (by permission of the sovereign or king-at-arms) allowed to issue out of a ducal coronet, mural crown, or cap of maintenance. Different crests are, in modern times, often assigned to separate branches of the same family, and there are many crests which so many families have in common that they are hardly distinctive. No ladies except sovereign princesses can, with any propriety, attach a crest to their arms. The assumption of crests by churchmen is equally objectionable. Corporations occasionally use them, a practice for which precedent may be shown from the 15th century. Crests are not to be confounded with family badges, which were never placed on a helmet, and ought not to be borne on a wreath. See BADGE; Fairbairn's Crests (2 vols. new ed. 1893), and Knight and Butters' Crests (2 vols. 1885).