A very interesting discussion!
These pictures you refer to are of peacock rather than ostrich feathers (just to clarify). Ostrich feathers are the big white fluffy ones! - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... %84ski.png*Mythos wrote:I have often wondered if ostrich feathers are correct for crests: would they have been obtainable in the C14 and C15?
As far as peacock feathers are concerned they seem to go back to at least the mid 13th C in England, as helm crests. See The Life of King Edward the Confessor -manuscript, executed c. 1250-60. http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/MSS/Ee.3.59/index.html