Estonian heraldry

[Derek Howard]

This week I was passed an unusual candidate for heraldic book of the
year. "Estonia - Candidate for Membership in the European union.
international Business Handbook 2000-2001" In pages 348-446 it contains,
beautifully presented, some 225 coats of arms of the counties and
municipalities of Estonia. More than twice the number contained in Ralph
Hartemink's excellent site <http://www.bng.nl/ngw/indexgb.htm> at
<http://www.bng.nl/ngw/int/est/estonia.htm>. Credit is given in the
handbook to the State Symbols Department of the State Chancellor's
Office (referred to elsewhere as the Department of Insignia it is not
clear what the Estonian tite is). They have worked well and there are
now only a very few municipalities without arms.

The style is distinctively Scandinavian with strong similarities to many
Finnish arms - lots of azure with argent and vert with or, many modern
partition lines - clover leaf, fir tree, fir twig, lots of fish, trees
and plants and looking very stylish. The book also has sections on state
medals, ribbons and honours.

The handbook ISSN 1406-3891 00620 is distributed by Euroinformer
<euro...@online.ee> whose web site is <http://www.online.ee/euroinfo>.
Ithas also has some odd but interesting articles on population mobility
studies from genetic research and language studies.

The state Chancellery is at <http://www.riik.ee> but my Estonian is not
up to reading the details. So I am copying this to their e-mail address
to pass on my congratulations at some superb work designing this
selection. I hope it will encourage the wider use of armorial art
amongst the population. I would dearly like to know who individually is
behind this creativity and the processes involved.

Derek Howard

[Patrick M. O'Shea]

In article <3A1E56...@skynet.be>,

The site is available in English and Russian as well. The English
version may be accessed at

http://www.riik.ee/en/

-Patrick O'Shea

--
Dr. Patrick M. O'Shea
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
www2.smumn.edu/facpages/~poshea

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

[pritch...@my-deja.com]

Dear Mr. Howard,

The estonian herald is my old friend Priit Herodes, who works out of an
office on Pikk Street in Tallinn's Old Town. If you would like to
contact him for further questions please let me know.

Kindest regards,

David Pritchard