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Sable (heraldry)

 

 
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Sable (heraldry)
 
 
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In heraldry
Heraldry

Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of devising, granting, and blazoning Coat of arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms....
, sable is the tincture
Tincture (heraldry)

In heraldry, tinctures are the colours used to blazon a coat of arms....
 black
Black

Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflection light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light....
, and belongs to the class of dark tinctures, called "colours". In engraving
Engraving

Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass engraving are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing images on paper as prints or illustra...
s and line drawings, it is sometimes depicted as a region of crossed horizontal and vertical lines or else marked with sa. as an abbreviation.

The name derives from the black fur of the sable
Sable

The sable is a small carnivorous mammal, closely related to the martens. It inhabits taiga environments primarily in Russia from the Ural Mountains throughout Siberia, in northern Mongolia and China and on Hokkaido in Japan....
, an animal.

Sable is said to represent the following:



e is considered a colour in British and French heraldry, and contrasts with lighter metals, argent
Argent

In heraldry, argent is the tincture of silver , and belongs to the class of light tinctures, called "metals". It is very frequently depicted as white and usually considered interchangeable with it....
 and Or
Or (heraldry)

In heraldry, or is the tincture of gold , and belongs to the class of light tinctures, called "metals". In engravings and line drawings, it may be represented using a pattern of dots....
.






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Heraldic Shield Sable
In heraldry
Heraldry

Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of devising, granting, and blazoning Coat of arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms....
, sable is the tincture
Tincture (heraldry)

In heraldry, tinctures are the colours used to blazon a coat of arms....
 black
Black

Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflection light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light....
, and belongs to the class of dark tinctures, called "colours". In engraving
Engraving

Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass engraving are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing images on paper as prints or illustra...
s and line drawings, it is sometimes depicted as a region of crossed horizontal and vertical lines or else marked with sa. as an abbreviation.

The name derives from the black fur of the sable
Sable

The sable is a small carnivorous mammal, closely related to the martens. It inhabits taiga environments primarily in Russia from the Ural Mountains throughout Siberia, in northern Mongolia and China and on Hokkaido in Japan....
, an animal.

Sable is said to represent the following:

  • Of jewels, the diamond
    Diamond

    In mineralogy, diamond is the Allotropes of carbon where the carbon atoms are arranged in an isometric-hexoctahedral crystal lattice. After graphite, diamond is the second most stable form of carbon....
  • Of heavenly bodies, Saturn
    Saturn

    Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn, along with Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, is classified as a gas giant....
    • (The planet Saturn is further associated with the metal lead in traditional alchemical/occultistic lore
      Classical planets in western alchemy

      Alchemy in the Western World and other locations where it was widely practiced was allied and intertwined with traditional Babylonian-Greek style astrology; in numerous ways they were built to complement each other in the search for occult ....
      )


Sable in Central Europe

Albania State Emblem
Zeme Herbas
Sable is considered a colour in British and French heraldry, and contrasts with lighter metals, argent
Argent

In heraldry, argent is the tincture of silver , and belongs to the class of light tinctures, called "metals". It is very frequently depicted as white and usually considered interchangeable with it....
 and Or
Or (heraldry)

In heraldry, or is the tincture of gold , and belongs to the class of light tinctures, called "metals". In engravings and line drawings, it may be represented using a pattern of dots....
. However, in the heraldry of Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
, Polish heraldry
Polish heraldry

The history of Polish heraldry is an integral part of the history of the Szlachta, the Polish nobility....
 and other parts of central Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, sable is not infrequently placed on colour fields. As a result, a sable cross may appear on a red shield, or a sable bird may appear on a blue or a red field, as in the arms of Albania
Albania

Albania , officially the Republic of Albania , is a country in Balkans. It is bordered by Greece to the south-east, Montenegro to the north, Kosovo to the northeast, and the Republic of Macedonia to the east....
.

In Hungary
Hungary

Hungary , officially in English the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia....
, for example, one can find examples of sable on gules and azure fields as early as the sixteenth century in the arms of the family Kanizsai (granted in 1519): "álló, csücskös talpú tárcsapajzs kék mezejében, lebego arany saslábon fekete sasszárny, jobbról ezüst félholdtól, balról nyolcágú arany csillagtól kísérve." (That is: Azure, an eagle's wing sable taloned Or between a decrescent argent and a sun Or.) Another early Hungarian example was granted in 1628 to the family Karomi Bornemisza : "álló, tojásdad pajzs vágott, felso vörös mezejében jobbra fordult feju, vágásvonalon álló, koronás fekete sas, az alsó kék mezoben fekete bölényfej, szájában hallall." (That is: Per fess gules, an eagle displayed sable crowned Or, and azure, a buffalo's head cabossed sable maintaining in its mouth a fish (argent?)).

Polish
Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian Enclave and exclave, to the north....
 examples abound as early as the fifteenth century. Józef Szymanski includes no fewer than seven examples of sable primary charges on either gules or azure fields out of the approximately 200 shields from this period whose blazons are known. These include the arms of Korwin: "Azure, a raven sable with a circlet or in its beak."; Kownaty: "Gules, a trumpet sable with a cord or, a Passion cross of the same issuing from its opening."; and Slonce: "Gules, a sphere radiant sable, its centre argent.". In addition to the seven major examples, he describes occasional variants for the arms of some ródy which also use sable charges on azure or gules fields.

Sable charges on gules fields also appear in the armory used in Lithuania
Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the southernmost of the three Baltic states. Situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, it shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast, Poland, and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast to the southwest....
. This is not surprising, since a significant fraction of Lithuania's coats of arms are of Polish origin, so there is a certain similarity of style. Among these coats are those of Great Žemaitija
Eldership of Samogitia

The Duchy of Samogitia had been the administrative unit of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1219 . From 1419 to 1441 it was known as starostwo of Samogitia....
: "a black bear with an argent chain on its neck on a field gules."

See also

  • Sable
    Sable

    The sable is a small carnivorous mammal, closely related to the martens. It inhabits taiga environments primarily in Russia from the Ural Mountains throughout Siberia, in northern Mongolia and China and on Hokkaido in Japan....
     (the animal)
  • Black
    Black

    Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflection light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light....