This volume continues the major project of creating a reliable means of identifying British medieval coats of arms, which began in 1940; it will be of interest not only to heralds, but also to aid historians, archaeologists, genealogists, and antiquaries.

This book of Crests follows a series of four earlier volumes of Arms together designed to enable those with a working knowledge of heraldry to identify medieval British Arms. The project is the result of a bequest to the Society of Antiquaries in 1926 for the production of a new edition of Papworth's Ordinary which has remained, since its publication in 1874, the principal tool for the identification of British coats of arms. An Ordinary, in this context, is a collection of Arms or Crests arranged alphabetically according to their designs, as opposed to an armory which is arranged alphabetically by surname.

The present work covers Crests dating from the period before the beginning of the heraldic Visitations in 1530. Its publication will mean that historians, antiquaries, archaeologists, genealogists, heraldists, antique dealers and collectors will be able to identify Crests on tombs, monuments, seals, textiles, metalwork, glass and other medieval artefacts with a greater degree of accuracy than has hitherto been possible. Even those without a knowledge of the subject will be able, by means of the index, to discover the blazons of Crests recorded under particular surnames in the Middle Ages.