See full pic on College of Arms Page
Paul
takes delivery of overdue Coat of Arms
See
full pic on College of Arms Page
Sir Paul takes delivery of his
coat of arms
Sir Paul McCartney has received a coat of arms featuring a guitar and a liver
bird, by the College of Arms, part of the royal household.
McCartney originally applied for it in 1997, the year he was knighted. But the
death of his first wife Linda from cancer in 1998 delayed its design and
approval.
The coat of arms, costing £3,500 was presented on an elaborate scroll inside a
red box with gold trimmings.
The crest features a Liver Bird, symbolising McCartney's home city, with its
beak open, as if singing, and holding a guitar in a claw. In heraldic terms it
is described as "a Liver Bird calling sable supporting with the dexter
claws a guitar or stringed sable."
The motto is Ecce Cor Meum, Latin for Behold My Heart. That is the title of an
oratorio written by McCartney during Linda's illness, which received its
premiere when it was sung by the choir of Magdalen College, Oxford, in November
last year.
The shield features two black curved emblems. Each is divided in two and the
resulting four shapes, resembling beetles' backs, symbolise McCartney and his
fellow Beatles John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Two circles refer to records and CDs, and guitar strings pass over them.
