Hen (heraldic animal)
The hen is a common figure in heraldry and, as a heraldic animal, is often difficult to distinguish from the heraldic rooster . The female form of the domestic chicken is not very common in the heraldic art, but is often found in the Henneberger Land (including Meiningen , Suhl , Wasungen ). A detailed list can be found here .
The coat of arms shows a predominantly black hen looking to the heraldic right as the basic pose. The reinforcement , such as the beak, small comb and small wattles, are tinged in red . If the bird is standing, the red legs are also visible. The tail is short and blunt and there should be no fighting stance (angled forward running barrel) as with the rooster or flying or courting. The heraldic animal is not very stylized and the helmet used as a mask is not known. Other tinctures are possible.
The hen can be sitting or standing in the coat of arms . A mountain of three or an archway can also be a good aid for the representation. Due to a mistake, the coat of arms of Bad Kissingen shows a hen's foot instead of a griffin foot in mixed up colors . In the coat of arms of Dittelbrunn the hen is at the gap . In Yssingeaux in the Haute-Loire department , the coat of arms includes five animals and a heraldic lily .
The hen is suitable for talking coats of arms . Example is the nobility Henneberg and the county of Henneberg , as well as many places in the so-called Henneberger Land . The gentlemen of Henneberg swapped the eagle for the hen in the coat of arms at an early stage . A reference to around 1340 is dated in the Zurich coat of arms . Also Finsterhennen has such arms. Henndorf am Wallersee ( Austria ) differs through the silver hen; the coat of arms is also talking.
literature
- Johann Siebmacher's large and general book of arms: The nobility of the free city of Frankfurt. [edit. by OT by Hefner]. Volume 2, Bauer and Raspe, Nuremberg 1856, p. 20.
- Rolf-Torsten Heinrich: Erfurt coat of arms book. Part 2, Books on Demand, 2015, ISBN 978-3-73868-641-8 .
- Walter Leonhard : The great book of heraldic art. Development, elements, motifs, design. 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Georg DW Callway, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-7667-0345-5 , p. 234, images 6 and 8.
