Digest

Written by John Jameson

There are not a lot of professional heraldic artists in the world, however one of the best, most accomplished, prolific and well known professional heraldic artists, is a Jamieson. He is Andrew Stewart Jamieson, who lives and works in the UK and has been working at his trade professionally now, for well more than three decades.

Heraldic art, is a rarified art form that includes, but goes way beyond just designing and drawing Coats of Arms. It is a broad field encompassing the design, display and study of armorial bearings (armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. It also includes the practice of devising, granting, displaying and recording coats of arms and of heraldic badges. It is however, more than just armory, it includes illustrations, vast displays, adornments, calligraphy and just about anything to do with heraldry itself.

Heraldry is practiced all around the world and is a complicated subject, with all kinds of rules and regulations, especially in Scotland where it is subject to an official government court, The Lord Lyon Court.

Andrew was born and raised in London, and in Sussex. His farther Robert Jameson, was an educator and his Jamieson family has it's ancestral roots in the Darlington area of County Durham, in northern England, at least as far back as the mid 1700s. After attending various schools in the UK and the USA, he studied at Salisbury College of Art and Reigate School of Art in England and while at Reigate he studied the arts of Heraldry, Calligraphy and traditional Manuscript Illumination, under the Master Heraldic Artist. He graduated 1983 with honours, gaining one of the highest grades in the history of the course.

In 1983 Andrew was invited to work for the College of Arms in London, as a freelance artist, where he still produces work for the Heralds. From 1997 to 2003 he worked with one of the scribes to the Crown Office helping illuminate the Peerage Patents for the House of Lords. Andrew is also Herald Painter to the British Association of the Catholic Order of Malta. Other clients have included the Catholic and Anglican church, the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force, the Adjutant Generals Corp, the Livery Companies of the City of London, the City of Bristol, The American College of Heraldry, various commercial and corporate clients, several European royal and noble houses and the late Sir Paul Getty KBE, who commissioned an illuminated manuscript book for his collection. He has also worked for numerous private clients and recently produced a painting of the arms of US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Andrew has taught and lectured at various Summer Schools and even taught King Mswati III of Swaziland calligraphy when he was a pupil at King's School Sherborne, Dorset, He is a Founder, Craft Member and Chairman of the Society of Heraldic Arts and a member of the Heraldry Society of Scotland. In 1996 his work was included in the "Twelve Masters of Heraldic Art" Exhibition held at the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa, Canada, He was part of the team involved in the restoration of Windsor Castle after its great fire and in 1998 he wrote and illustrated the Pitkin Guide, "Coats of Arms" which has sold over 45,000 copies. Recently he has been working as an illuminator on the Saint John's Bible, being produced for the University of St. John, in Minnesota. In 2002 he was elected a Brother of the Artworkers Guild in London.

In the past few years he has started to concentrate more on his abstract and other paintings. One of his passions is that of nautical art and those that know him well, say he has painted more images of the sea and of ships longer than even his work with heraldry.

Andrew produces his work by appointment and by commission, some of his work can be seen at his website: The Grand Armorial, as well as his Facebook page, and at several other places on the internet including a fair amount of his work on Printerest.