This arti­cle is pub­lished in com­mem­o­ra­tion of the demise of Her late Majesty Queen Eliz­a­beth II.

Roy­al Arms have always con­ferred an air of author­i­ty on print­ed items and print­ers have sought to use this in their work. 

History of the Arms

In 1492 De Worde added the arms of Hen­ry VII at the end of a Statute, but there was­n’t always a direct link between roy­al author­i­ty and the print­ed piece.  Many print­ers used the Roy­al Arms just as dec­o­ra­tion.

For a peri­od, print­ing was licenced through Roy­al pre­rog­a­tive. The Arms in this case reflect­ed the print­er’s per­mis­sion to print, rather than express­ing that the print­ed item was autho­rised in any way by the Crown. 

As gov­ern­ment print­ing work began to grow, print­ers have had a ​‘stand­ing invi­ta­tion’ to bid for work from what was Her Majesty’s Sta­tionery Office (HMSO).  This print­ing demand­ed that the Roy­al Arms were includ­ed, but HMSO did not sup­ply a stan­dard print­ing block to use.  Edmund Fry & Co includ­ed a block in their 1790 cat­a­logue. Carter¹ sug­gests that there appeared to be no stan­dard­i­s­a­tion of appear­ance until the sug­ges­tion that around 1902, founders’ spec­i­men books began to refer to Arms as ​‘autho­rized by H. M. Sta­tionery Office’.  In fact this was the result of a dis­cus­sion between the Con­troller of HMSO and the Home Office.  The design autho­rised was very weak, and print­ers still used the vari­ants that had been pro­duced by founders.

The 1922 report of The Best Faces of Type and Modes of Dis­play for Gov­ern­ment Print­ing Com­mit­tee lav­ished atten­tion on the Roy­al Arms.  The Com­mit­tee rec­om­mend­ed dif­fer­ent draw­ings to be used at dif­fer­ent sizes — ear­li­er large Arms had sim­ply been reduced los­ing detail and clar­i­ty —  and that the Arms always be placed at the head of the doc­u­ment.

The 1956 Reynolds Stone Arms

By 1954, the 1920s arms were dat­ed.  The ​‘snow­storm’ back­ground was inap­pro­pri­ate, print­ing and repro­duc­tion had advanced, and cru­cial­ly, Her late Majesty had expressed a wish that the St. Edwards Crown should replace the ear­li­er Tudor Crown.

The wood engraver Reynolds Stone was invit­ed to cre­ate a new design for the Arms.  He cre­at­ed designs at two sizes to allow for inter­me­di­ate sizes to be devel­oped so that the Arms could be print­ed with an appro­pri­ate lev­el of detail at dif­fer­ent sizes.  There were nine approved ver­sions of the 1956 Arms.

Some Scot­tish and North­ern Irish print­ing did not have to use Reynolds Stone’s design, but for all oth­er uses, Her late Majesty approved the design for use from Jan­u­ary 1956². 

Royal Cypher

The Roy­al Cypher has a slight­ly dif­fer­ent role, being indi­vid­ual to the monarch rather than rep­re­sent­ing the author­i­ty of the Crown.  While it’s usu­al for us to see the EIIR cypher and the Reynolds Stone Roy­al Arms togeth­er,  the Roy­al Arms adopt­ed in 1924 would have been used by George V, Edward VIII and George VI but their Roy­al Cyphers are each dif­fer­ent.

Queen Eliz­a­beth’s cypher was need­ed for her coro­na­tion in 1953 not least to be embroi­dered on to the uni­forms of the Roy­al House­hold.

Being Queen Eliz­a­beth the Sec­ond was not tak­en for grant­ed in Scot­land, and a case was brought by John Mac­Cormick argu­ing that since there had been no Queen Eliz­a­beth the First in Scot­land (being only Queen of Eng­land), then Queen Eliz­a­beth could not be Queen Eliz­a­beth the Sec­ond in Scot­land.  The case failed, the Queen being able to call her­self what­ev­er she wished.  Despite this legal fail­ure, some pil­lar box­es were attacked that bore the EIIR cypher.  As a result the Roy­al Mail in Scot­land adopt­ed the Crown of Scot­land as an emblem, rather than the EIIR cypher.

Restrictions on Use

Not­ing ear­li­er that the use of the Arms did not always car­ry author­i­ty, attempts have been made to restrict use of the Arms.  The Board of Trade seemed to change tack on use of the Arms in the late 1800s — an 1884 let­ter explained that their use was only restrict­ed if they were used with intent to deceive.  But by 1894 the Board advised that only a court could decide whether print­ers could use the Arms on their work with­out author­i­ty.

Charles III

King Charles III will have to decide on a Roy­al Cipher.  The Min­istry of Type looked at Roy­al Insignia and pro­posed a sug­ges­tion in 2009 of what a CIIIR cipher might look like, based on what looks be to Caslon used on ear­li­er ciphers.

Charles might also wish to look again at the Roy­al Arms.  Despite their last update being 66 years ago, it feels dif­fi­cult to see how it can be improved, although a tweaked ver­sion for dig­i­tal repro­duc­tion has been used in the HM Gov­ern­ment Iden­ti­ty Sys­tem.

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Location

Buck­ing­ham Palace, Lon­don, as the like­ly loca­tion of the approval of many ver­sions of the Roy­al Arms.

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Head­er Image: Authour’s Roy­al Arms