"How do we know about Liveries?" Topic

Several folks on this site and others have graciously shared their research on liveries of various WotR contingents.

My question, born purely of curiosity, is: What are the original sources of this information?

In the UK, we – have a college of Arms link , which for centuries has recorded Arms and often Liveries.
There are also local records – and paintings.
Books on this subject usually have a Bibliography at the back citing their sources.

I hope this is helpful.

As well as what Herk said, Deucey, there's a lot of other sources, such as church and chapel windows and stall plates (a coloured or carved plate that has the arms or livery of the mob that get to sit there), tapestries, illustrated manuscripts, old records of orders of cloth, etc.

There's also the mantling and torse on a persons crest (see the attached image if you're not sure what these are). Usually they will be in the main colours of the arms, but occasionally they will show the livery colours instead.

Church windows fade, as do tapestries and paintings, which is why some sources disagree. So guesswork plays a big part as well.

link

Interesting. So ALOT of work done by very dedicated people. I'll just have to trust them. And not overthink it!

Interesting. So ALOT of work done by very dedicated people. I'll just have to trust them. And not overthink it!

Apart from the better known liveries most of them are a matter of choosing a source and using that. The Freezywater booklets, available from the Lance and Longbow Society ( link ) are cheap and one of the more widely accepted references, mate. They also do flags and banners, as well.

I have found some online lists plus some posts on here that list them. I looked into the Freezywater, but the shipping was killer. I hope to find aUS distributor.