Heraldry as decoration
The uses of Heraldry as a form of decoration are many. Banners, flags and pennants were all used in the older days of Heraldry and the house flag lived on long after these early days. There are many countries that use either the Coat of Arms of the land or at least some of the colors of the Arms for the flag. Spain, for example, has the royal arms contained within its national flag, see image above. Firearms often have Coats of Arms engraved on them, in the case of pistols the engraving is usually on the butt of the gun. In the case of some 17th century pistols which can be quite valuable, the Coat of Arms marking is...