Some distinguished people and their coats of arms.

André Le Nôtre (1613–1700), French gardener, very famous French gardener. Ennobled in 1681.

Son and grandson of gardeners, apprentice of the royal painter Simon Vouet, gifted designer of the King's gardens, Le Nôtre was a simple and modest man. To King Louis XIV who wanted to give him a coat of arms, he candidly replied that he already had it: 'three snails crowned by the head of a cabbage. Sir, he added, could I forget my spade? How much must it be dear to me? Isn't to it that I owe all the kindness of which your Majesty honors me?'

Carl von Linné (1707-1761), Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist. Ennobled in 1761.

The eminent naturalist conceived his own coat of arms with: 'my Linnea in the elm, in the shield three fields, black, red and green, the three kingdoms of nature (mineral, animal and vegetable), and thereon, an egg cut in half, or an halved egg, to betoken nature which is continued and perpetuated in an egg.'

His drawing was considered too poor and Daniel Tilas, the national herald, provided a more elegant version. In a letter to Tilas in November 1762, Linnaeus gratefully writes about it, remarking with pleasure the inclusion of his beloved flower, the Linnaea borealis, asking the ostrich feathers to be removed (probably from the crest) and to be allowed to divide the escutcheon into three fields and different colours. He also asks Tilas to choose between the cross and the rays, and to place one of them in the middle of the small egg.
Linnaeus, or von Linné after his ennoblement, chose the following motto: FAMAM EXTENDERE FACTIS (To Expand Fame by Deeds).

Sir Joseph Paxton (1803-1865), English gardener and architect. Knighted in 1851.

Born in a humble family, self-educated, Head Gardener and later Manager of the Duke of Devonshire's estates, Paxton shaped the grounds with lakes and arboreta, planted collections of trees, experimented with new flowers, built fountains and greenhouses, and published magazines. 

He was kinghted by Queen Victoria for his project of the Crystal Palace, the innovative building in glass and cast iron, inspired by the structure of the leaves of the Victoria amazonica, designed for the Great Exhibition held in London in 1851. 

Does this plan of the grounds of the Crystal Palace, dated 1857, seem a coat of arms, doesn't it?

Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944), British architect. Knighted in 1918.

Educated at home because of ill-health, Sir Lutyens began to attend the Kensington School of Art in 1885 for two years, then he was paying apprentice in the office of Ernest George and Peto for one year, and eventually opened his own practice in 1888. He designed country houses, churches, gardens, bridges, commercial buildings, art galleries, war cemeteries, monuments, furniture, including beautiful lighting, and New Delhi.

In his coat of arms, designed in 1936, the capital of the column is in the Delhi order. Sir Lutyens created this new architectural order during his works to plan the imperial capital of New Delhi between 1912 and 1930.  He designed simple classical columns with a band of vertical ridges in the capital and small bells carved at each corner, combining the Greek Doric order with Indian elements. His bells were inspired by those at the entrance of Hindu temples whose sound prepare devotees for prayers and meditation, but, his pendant bells are silent. Did he use them to give the new buildings a solemn touch or perhaps to protect the British empire? According to an Indian legend, in fact, ringing bells announce the fall of dynasties.
His motto: METIENDO VIVENDUM (By Measure We Live).




Links:
The Linnean Correspondence
http://linnaeus.c18.net/Letter/L3161
Lutyens Furniture & Lighting Blog (Lutyens' coat of arms)
http://www.lutyens-furniture.com/blog/january-2012/