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Tincture (heraldry)
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In heraldry, tinctures are the colours used to emblazon a coat of arms.
e are seven principal tinctures, consisting of two metals (light tinctures) and five colours (dark tinctures).
Although the English term vert is also from French, the French use the word sinople to refer to the tincture.
The patterns illustrated are occasionally used to depict arms in a monochromatic context, such as a "hatching" (sketch) or engraving.
ur Charles Fox-Davies has argued that in extremely rare circumstances, white can be a heraldic colour different from argent.
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In heraldry, tinctures are the colours used to emblazon a coat of arms.
Basic tinctures
There are seven principal tinctures, consisting of two metals (light tinctures) and five colours (dark tinctures).
Tincture nomenclature
The names of the tinctures mainly come to us from Norman French:
- Azure is from the Arabic lazward meaning lapis lazuli.
- Sable is named for the fur of the sable marten.
- Gules may be from the French gueules, which is thought to refer to animal's red throats.
Although the English term vert is also from French, the French use the word sinople to refer to the tincture.
The patterns illustrated are occasionally used to depict arms in a monochromatic context, such as a "hatching" (sketch) or engraving.
Argent and white
Arthur Charles Fox-Davies has argued that in extremely rare circumstances, white can be a heraldic colour different from argent. He bases this in part on the "white labels" used to difference the arms of members of the British Royal Family. However, it has been argued that these could be regarded as "white labels proper", thus rendering white not a heraldic tincture. In Portuguese heraldry, white seems to be regarded as a tincture different from argent, as evidenced by the arms of the Município de Santiago do Cacém in Portugal, in which the white of the fallen Moor's clothing and the knight's horse is distinguished from the argent of the distant castle, and in the arms of the Logistical and Administrative Command of the Portuguese Air Force.
Or
Or is usually spelt with a capital letter (e.g. Gules, a fess Or) so as not to confuse it with the conjunction or.
Sometimes the word gold is used for Or in blazon, either to prevent repetition of the word Or, or because this substitution was the fashion in a particular period, or, more rarely, because it is the preference of an officer of arms. Regardless, Or is much more frequently used.
Sometimes Or and yellow are different colours, as in the 1502 crest of the city Košice (wings per fess of yellow and azure a fleur-de-lys Or).
Proper
Objects may also be depicted in their natural colours, described in blazons as 'proper' (though in some cases what are considered the "natural colours" are determined by convention rather than observation in the wild; for instance, a parrot proper is green, not any of the huge range of colours that parrots are coloured with in nature; and dragons, though never found in nature, are when proper also green). Sometimes when "proper" alone would not give adequate information as to the appearance a colour must also then be given (e.g., a white horse proper). Proper is considered to be a tincture distinct from whatever heraldic tincture the depiction of the item or being in question would most closely approximate.
An unusual case is in the colonial arms of Algiers, in which the boulet on which the lion rests his paw is stated to be the same "proper" [au naturel] as the lion.
Some consider it bad form to depict too many charges as "proper", especially when those charges create a landscape. This experienced a vogue during the Victorian period, but came to be deprecated as being excessively difficult to draw from blazon, and somewhat contrary to the spirit of heraldry as favouring bold, clear, and unmistakable designs.
Later tinctures
Later heraldry introduced some more colours. Only three are of more than exceptional use in British heraldry: murrey (mulberry-coloured), sanguine (blood-red) and tenné (orange or tan, though in continental heraldry orange is regarded as different, and South African blazons mention both "orange" and "tenné," though how these are shown is apparently interchangeable). These were sometimes called stainand colours (or "stains"), as some rebatements of honour were said to be blazoned of these colours.
Other colours, particularly those used in Europe, include:
The "ash colour" in the arms of Gwilt of South Wales ("Argent, a lion rampant sable, the head, paws, and half of the tail ash colour") may be the same tincture as cendrée. (Sometimes charges are described as de piedra in Spanish heraldry, which literally means "of stone" and indicates a grey colour.) It is important, however, to distinguish descriptions of a type of animal (such as "a horse of bay colour") followed by proper, from true heraldic tinctures.
These are rare – the seven primary tinctures are the most common ones. Rarer still are other such Continental colours as "Brunâtre," the extremely unusual occurrences of which are almost entirely limited to "details" of charges that might be blazoned as "proper," with exceptions such as the brown lion rampant in the arms of Simón Bolívar. A field Brunâtre almost never occurs, though brunatre is used more often than might be suspected in South African heraldry; the arms of the Oziel Selele Comprehensive School (Bothaville) are officially blazoned Brunatre, a torch argent enflamed or between two open rolls of parchment argent, an orle or. It is blazoned "Braun" in German heraldry. In German heraldry there are also the colours "grey", "Eisen" (iron) and "water colour," though there are unique appearances of "grey" in the heraldry of South Africa and the United States. (It is unclear how "water colour" should be depicted.) "Earth colour" appears not only occasionally in German heraldry, but there is at least one appearance of "earth colour" in English blazon, in the arms of the Royal Miners' Company, and in the arms of Santiago de Cali, Colombia. The colour "amaranth" or "columbine" was used "in a coat granted to a Bohemian knight in 1701".
The arms of the Jewish Autonomous Region in Russia have a field of aquamarine, which is emblazoned more as a kind of dark green than a true aquamarine colour.
The fess on the arms of the Republic of Colombia is blazoned as of the colour of platinum.
In 1997 the colour rose and the metal copper appeared in Canada, the former in the arms of Prime Minister Kim Campbell. In South African heraldry, the arms of the University of Transkei provide an example of ochre and the national arms of red ochre.
In the heraldry of the United States Army the shades of colours and metals are often parenthetically specified, though this is far from in keeping with normal heraldic practice. The Institute of Heraldry has also introduced the colours buff (though this is often employed like a metal) and horizon blue
have appeared, and silver gray has appeared in the heraldry of the Army and Air Force. There seems to be some confusion about the colour crimson as it exists in blazon sometimes as a separate tincture and sometimes as a "definition" of the shade of gules to be employed by the artist. Bronze makes appearances in the arms of the Special Troops Battalion of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division (there seeming to be a colour rather than a novel metal) and those of Tumaco, Colombia.
Furs
Furs, such as ermine, vair, and their variants, are regular patterns that represent actual fur. Any charge may be of a fur. (In German heraldry, "fur proper" is sometimes used, but this is extremely rare.)
(Although the name "sable" comes from a kind of fur, the colour sable is usually not considered a heraldic fur.)
Ermine and its variants
Ermine represents the winter coat of the stoat, white with a black tail; many skins would be sewn together to make a luxurious garment, producing a pattern of small black objects on a white ground. The conventional representation of the tails (usually called ermine spots) is part of the tincture itself, rather than a pattern of charges, though the ermine spot is occasionally used as a single charge (often as a difference mark). The ermine spot has had a wide variety of shapes over the centuries; its most usual representation has three tufts at the end, converges to a point at the root (top), and is attached by three studs.
On a bend ermine the tails follow the line of the bend. In , the field ermine is cut into bendlike strips by the three bendlets azure, so the ermine tails are (unusually) depicted bendwise.
Ermines is the reverse of ermine – a field sable semé of ermine-spots argent. It is occasionally called counter-ermine, especially by SCA heralds.
Erminois is ermine with a field Or instead of argent, and pean is the reverse of erminois.
Erminites is supposed to be the "same as ermine, except that the two lateral hairs of each spot are red." James Parker mentions it, as does Pimbley, though by the former's admission this is of doubtful existence. Arthur Charles Fox-Davies describes it as a "silly [invention] of former heraldic writers."
Other colours may be obtained, but they must be blazoned as, for example, gules, semé of ermine-spots Or.
Vair and its variants
Vair is thought to originate from the fur of a species of squirrel with blue-grey back and white belly, sewn together alternately.
The term "vair" may have originally been cognate with “varied”, and was certainly used to describe horses of a mottled or spotted pattern.
Basic vair consists of rows of small bell-like shapes of alternating blue and white, nowadays usually drawn with straight edges. The bells on the next row down are placed with their bottoms facing the bottoms of the bells on the row above, and so forth down.
The old depictions of vair are similar in appearance to bars of azure and argent divided by alternating straight and wavy lines. (An excellent example is the lining of the cloak of Geoffrey Plantagenet as represented on his tomb.) In the past this would simply be blazoned "vair", but nowadays this is usually (though not always) blazoned vair ancient.
- Counter-vair is like vair, except that bells with their bottoms facing have the same tincture. The effect is one of vertical columns of bells of the same colour, alternately upside-down and right side up.
- Vair en pointe has the "upward" bells alternate color in each row, in such a way as to form waves so that the overall effect is similar to barry wavy. Vairy en pointe can be seen in the arms of Dr. Malcolm Robert Golin.
- Vair in pale has bells of each tincture lined up in columns rather than alternating, so that the flat end of each white bell meets the narrow point of another in the next row.
Very rarely, the bells of vair are used as charges.
The arms of Jean II de Condet, in the Armorial de Gelre, provide an example of "vair in chevron."
Potent is like vair, except using a T-shaped item instead of the vair bell. (The word "potent" means crutch; it is thought to derive from badly-drawn vair.) It is subject to all the subvarieties of vair, thus counter-potent and so on.
Other tinctures may be used, described as vairy, counter-vairy, potenty, or counter-potenty of (say) Or and gules. In extremely rare circumstances there is vairy of four colours, but apparently vairy is always either of two or four colours.
The height of a row of vair is not strictly specified, but is typically about one-fifth that of the shield. (Occasionally in French heraldry the number of rows are specified.) Where there are more than six rows, the term menu-vair may be used (outside British heraldry). This is the origin of the English word "miniver", which was the general word for the fur lining used for robes of state.
Vair of fewer than four rows is sometimes called beffroi (a French word cognate to belfry), probably from the resemblance of a piece of vair to a church tower.
The word derives from Old French berfroi and Old High German bergfrid, "that which guards the peace".
Originally, a beffroi was a wheeled tower which was used for scaling the walls of a besieged city, and which was a similar shape as the pieces of vair.
Later, it became used for a watchtower, and then for any tower where a bell was hung.
Vair of two rows, called gros-vair, is occasionally seen.
Other furs
German heraldry recognizes a fur called Kursch; this is said to be drawn brown and hairy, and there are occasional references in English to "vair bellies", which may be the same thing.
Plumeté is a feather-like pattern of exceptionally rare appearance which is, strangely, nevertheless placed under the heading of furs. It can be used essentially (though not technically) as a type of patterned field. "Plumetty d'aigle proper" is distinguished in at least one case, though the tincture in this case is a form of proper.
Pappeloné is a pattern supposed to resemble the scales on the wings of a butterly .
The rule of tincture
The first rule of heraldry is the rule of tincture: metal must never be placed upon metal, nor colour upon colour, for the sake of contrast.
The main duty of a heraldic device is to be recognized, and the dark colours or light metals are supposed to be too difficult to distinguish if they are placed on top of other dark or light colours, particularly in poor light. Though this is the practical genesis of the rule, the rule is technical and appearance is not used in determining whether arms conform to the rule. Another reason sometimes given to justify this rule is that it was difficult to paint with enamel (colour) over enamel, or with metal over metal.
This rule is so closely followed that arms that violate it are called armes fausses (false arms) or armes à enquérir (arms of enquiry); any violation is presumed to be intentional, to the point that one is supposed to enquire how it came to pass. One of the most famous armes à enquérir (often said to be the only example) was the shield of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which had gold crosses on silver. This use of metal on metal, that is to say white and gold together, is seen on the arms of the King of Jerusalem, the flag and arms of the Vatican, and the bishop's mitre in the arms of Andorra. It indicates the exceptional holy and special status of the Coat of Arms. (In the case of Jerusalem, this may also emphasize the Arab techniques gained in the Levant). An example of "colour on colour" is the arms of Albania, with its sable two-headed eagle on a gules field.
The rule of tincture has had an influence reaching far beyond heraldry. It has been imposed on flags, or perhaps it should be put, applied to the design of flags, so that the flag of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach was modified to conform to the rule. The rule of tincture has also influenced World Wide Web design with respect to what colour font should be placed on what colour background. Almost all license plates and traffic signs, intentionally or unintentionally, follow it.
Blazon
- See main article: Blazon.
The custom in English blazon is to reduce redundancy by only referring to a particular colour once in the blazon.
For example, instead of saying Gules, on a fess Or a rose gules seeded Or, one would say, Gules, on a fess Or a rose of the field, seeded of the second. However, this practice has recently been abandoned by the College of Arms because of the difficulty some have had in counting which number a tincture is.
Likewise, instead of Vert, a fess Or between two lions passant Or, one would say, Vert, a fess between two lions passant Or, as all items in blazon appearing after a given tincture are of the tincture next to be named. Given this, the Institute of Heraldry practice of often using the phrase "of the like" in a similar context is out of
harmony with the usual heraldic practice and completely unnecessary.
Counterchanging
When a charge is placed across a division line, variation, or ordinary, it may be blazoned counterchanged. However, some patterns, such as chequy, do not permit charges over them to be treated this way.
This means that the charge is divided the same way as the field it is placed upon, with the colours reversed.
A shield which is green on the upper half and silver on the lower, charged at the centre with a lion whose upper half is silver and lower half green, would be blazoned: Per fess vert and argent, a lion counterchanged.
In Scots heraldry, a charge may be blazoned as counterchanged of different colours from the field; e.g. Per fess gules and azure, a sun in splendour counterchanged Or and of the first. In English heraldry, this would be described as Per fess gules and azure, a sun in splendour per fess Or and of the first.
A situation similar to counterchanging can be seen in the arms of Brian North Lee: Sable three billets in bend Argent overlapping on a chief Vert three escallops Argent. Here, the parts of the billets that overlap are shown as being sable, the tincture of the field.
Gemstone / planet blazoning
During the late medieval period and Renaissance, there was an occasional practice of blazoning tinctures by gemstones, or by references to the seven classical "planets" (including Sun and Moon), as summarized in the tables below:
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