OfficialFamily Crest
The study: oak paneling and a wall of framed painted crests.
The study. Framed house specimens hang above the reading table.

Decorative heraldry

A house for family heraldry

Official Family Crest prepares family crests for the wall, the desk, and the shelf. The work is drawn for display and printed on lasting paper or glaze. It is artwork. It is not a government record, a grant of arms, or proof of ancestry.

A surname is not a grant of arms. Popular family crest lists are often copied, incomplete, or invented. We say so in the terms and conditions and on the blog. What we sell is the object: a crest prepared as art for one household.

The catalog

In the shop

Open a piece for the photographs, the facts, and add to cart. Every line is prepared for one household.

Cream ceramic mug printed with a red-lion family crest.
Family crest coffee mug$28.00 · your family crest here
Unframed archival print of an oak-tree achievement on cotton paper.
Archival crest print$78.00 · 11 × 14 in
Gold-framed crest hanging on a cream plaster wall.
Framed crest print$186.00 · 16 × 20 in
Cream presentation parchment with a painted griffin achievement.
Presentation parchment$240.00 · 13 × 19 in
A tied set of cream bookplates printed with a small crest.
Bookplates, set of 24$56.00

The full shelf is in Shop All.

The method

How a piece is prepared

The desk comes before the press. A shield is drawn for the household, then printed in the form you chose.

An oak desk with gouache, brushes, and a half-finished painted shield.
The desk. A shield is painted before any print is run.
  1. You writeAdd a piece to the cart and write the household name on the product page. Questions still go to the contact page.
  2. We look, then we sayStaff may read published sources and write back with what those pages show, and with what they do not show. We do not grant arms. A thin record still becomes artwork, not a certificate.
  3. A specimen is drawnA crest is painted for your household. You see it before we print. If a change is needed, we make it then, not after the paper is cut.
  4. The piece is printedPigment inks on cotton or parchment, packed for the post. Damaged arrivals are handled under the refund policy.

From the office

Notes on the records

Short writing on coats of arms, crests, and the pages that stand behind them. We link to the authorities we used.

  • Heraldry in the United States

    America has no government office that grants a family a coat of arms. It does have a long heraldic habit, and a federal institute that designs emblems for the Army, not for private surnames.

  • How to read a coat of arms

    A blazon is the written coat. The order of the words, the metals and colours, and why “gold on white” is usually a fault.

  • The crest is not the coat of arms

    The crest sits on the helmet. The arms live on the shield. A surname does not come with either one attached.

The rest of the notes live on the blog. Questions about an order go to the staff.