Tincture (heraldry)

Tinctures are the colours used to blazon coats of arms in heraldry.

Basic tinctures

There are seven tinctures, consisting of two metals (light tinctures) and five colours (dark tinctures).

* "Or" is usually spelt with a capital letter (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, but "or" has been used much more frequently.

Arthur Charles Fox-Davies has argued that in extremely rare circumstances, white can be a different heraldic colour 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.[1] (http://www.heraldry-scotland.co.uk/Forum/ShowMessage.asp?ID=2700) White seems to be regarded as a different tincture from argent in Portuguese heraldry, as evidenced by the arms of municipal de Santiago do Cacém (http://www.fisicohomepage.hpg.ig.com.br/stc.htm) 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.

The names of the tinctures mainly come to us from French. Azure is from the Arabic lazward meaning lapis lazuli; sable is named for the fur of the sable marten; and gules is 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 themselves 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.

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 Dutch heraldry orange is regarded as different, and South African blazons mention both "orange" and "tenné," though how these are shown are apparently interchangable[2] (http://heraldrysociety.us/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4685#4685)). These were sometimes called stainand colours, as some rebatements of honour were said to be blazoned of these colours.

Other colours, particularly those used in Europe, include:

• carnation (the colour of European human skin – most common in France),
• bleu celeste (also ciel or celeste – sky-blue),
• cendrée (dark grey)

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.[3] (http://www02.so-net.ne.jp/~saitou/cgi-bin/more.cgi?input=Colours) It is important to note, however, that 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". Brunâtre can be seen in the brown lion rampant in the arms of Simón Bolívar, and is blazoned "Braun" in German heraldry. In German heraldry there are also the colours "grey", "Eisen" (iron) and "earth colour" and "water colour," though there are unique appearances of "grey" in the heraldry of South Africa[4] (http://www.national.archsrch.gov.za/sm300cv/smws/sm30ddf0?200502242248131B063880&DN=00000002) and the United States,[5] (http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/Chem/490ChemicalBattalion.htm) and at least one appearance of "earth colour" in English blazon, in the arms of the Royal Miners' Company.[6] (http://www.heraldsnet.org/saitou/parker/Jpglossm.htm) (It is unclear how "water colour" should be depicted.[7] (http://www.geocities.com/armoria/ABC/tinctures.html)) The colour "amaranth" or "columbine" was used "in a coat granted to a Bohemian knight in 1701".[8] (http://www.heraldica.org/topics/tincturs.htm)

The supporters of the arms of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames: On either side a Griffin Gules armed and beaked Azure each supporting an Oar proper the blade of the dexter Dark Blue and that of the sinister Light Blue.

In addition to bleu celeste, there is also an apparently unique example in British heraldry of the use of "dark blue" and "light blue". It was first used in the arms of the former Borough of Barnes, through which the Oxford versus Cambridge boat race passes on the Thames, showing the respective blades of the teams' oars[9] (http://www.geocities.com/armoria/ABC/tinctures.html); when in 1965 that borough merged with its neighbours to form the Borough of Richmond upon Thames, the coloured oars were transferred to the supporters in the arms of the new borough. In the arms of the University of Natal Athletic Union the azure is defined as "sky blue".[10] (http://www.national.archsrch.gov.za/sm300cv/smws/sm30ddf0?20050217191919384F61A4&DN=00000053)

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.

In 1997 the colours rose and copper appeared in Canada. In South African heraldry, the arms of the University of Transkei provide an example of ochre[11] (http://uk.geocities.com/wapenskild/uni/Unitra.html).

In the heraldry of the United States Army the colours buff[12] (http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/Trans/11TransportationBattalion.htm), crimson[13] (http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/Ord/15OrdnanceBattalion.htm) and horizon blue[14] (http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/Spt/738th%20Support%20Battalion.htm) have appeared, and silver gray has appeared in the heraldry of the Army[15] (http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/Numeric_Misc/1SpaceBattalion.htm) and Air Force.[16] (http://www.ascho.wpafb.af.mil/88th%20ABW%20Emblem.htm)

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.

The rule of tincture does not apply to furs (so furs are sometimes called "amphibious"), nor to charges proper (see below).

Divisions of the field are considered to be beside each other, not one on top of the other; so the rule of tincture does not apply. The rule also does not apply to party-coloured (divided) fields; a field party of a colour and metal may have a charge of either colour or metal placed on it. Likewise, a party-coloured (of colour and metal) charge may be placed on either a colour or metal background. Neither does the rule apply to the tongue, horns, claws, hoofs of beasts (for instance, a lion or on an azure field could be langued [with his tongue] gules) when of a different tincture than the rest of the animal.

This rule is so closely followed that arms that violate it are called armes fausses (false arms) or armes à enquerir (arms of enquiry); any violation is presumed to be intentional, to the point that one is supposed to enquire how it came to pass. (For example, such arms are sometimes caused by the addition of honourable augmentations granted by the monarch, which always ignore the rule of tincture.) One of the most famous armes à enquerir (often said to be the only example) was the shield of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which had gold crosses on silver (thus, metal on metal). An example of "colour on colour" is the arms of Albania, with its sable two-headed eagle on a gules field.

On the rare occasions this rule has been violated, the offending charge has perhaps most often been a chief (see Ordinaries and sub-ordinaries), which has led some commentators to question whether the rule should apply to a chief, or even whether a chief should be considered a charge at all, but rather a division of the field. (These violations usually occur in the case of landscape heraldry and augmentations, although French civic heraldry, with its frequent chiefs of France [with either three fleurs-de-lys or on an azure field or azure, seme-de-lys or], often violate this rule when the field is of a colour; the arms of Harvard Law School, with its gules chief on an azure field, is another example.) However, this is a radically minorial view.

In French heraldry the term cousu ("sewn") is sometimes in blazon used to get around what would otherwise be a violation of the rule. In Italian heraldry terms such as per inchiesta are used in the blazons of the extremely rare violations of the rule, to acknowledge their exceptionality, or impropriety.[17] (http://www.regalis.com/reg/medherald.htm)

Marks of cadency (whether bordures, the marks of the English cadency system, or any other mark) (and presumably marks of distinction), can be exceptions to this rule. (An example would be the arms of Anjou: Azure three fleurs-de-lys or and a bordure gules.[18] (http://www.heraldica.org/topics/tinctrul.htm) Also, in Great Britain, cantons added to indicate baronetcy of Ulster (showing a gules hand couped on an argent field) ignore this rule; otherwise they could be displayed by no one with a metal field.

Another violation which is usually not worried about is a green mount on a blue field representing the sky, and any of several methods of depicting the sea, waves or the like are similarly treated.

Fimbriation, the surrounding of a charge by a thin border, can obviate what would otherwise be a violation of the rule, as in the Union Jack (which, although a flag rather than a shield, was designed using heraldic principles). The "divise," a thin band running underneath the chief in French heraldry, can also obviate a violation, as can the parallel "fillet" in English heraldry.

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.[19] (http://flagspot.net/flags/de-sw_hi.html) 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.

Furs

Furs, such as ermine, ermines, or vair, are regular variations of the field that represent various types of actual fur. Any charge may be of a fur. (In German heraldry, "fur proper" is sometimes used, but this is rare in the extreme.)

(Although the name "sable" comes from a kind of fur, the colour sable is not considered a heraldic fur.)

Ermine and its variants

Ermine is in design a field argent, semé (see variations of the field) of ermine-spots sable, but is not so regarded; it is regarded as a plain tincture. An ermine-spot is a small bell-shaped item, variously depicted, that occasionally figures as a charge in its own right. Ermine represents the white coat of the animal to which tufts of its black tail fur were sewn.

The arms of William John Uncles (http://www.whitelionsociety.org.uk/WLSArmorial/Slide%20115.gif) show an unusual field of "ermine the spots 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.

James Parker says that "erminites" is like ermine except with a red hair on each side of the "spot", but by his own admission this is of doubtful existence.[20] (http://www02.so-net.ne.jp/~saitou/cgi-bin/more.cgi?input=Ermine) John Guillim also mentions this.[21] (http://www.btinternet.com/~paul.j.grant/guillim/s1/gu_s1c4.htm)

Other colours may be obtained, but they must be blazoned as, for example, gules, semé of ermine-spots Or.

Vair and its variants

Basic vair is a row of small items shaped like bells 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 top row has the upright bells being argent, the next row down has them being azure. The pattern is thought to represent squirrel furs, sewn together in such a way that the white belly and blue-gray back alternate.

The old depictions of vair are similar in appearance to bars of azure and argent divided by alternate straight lines and lines wavy. In the past this would simply be blazoned "vair", but nowadays this is usually (though not always) blazoned vair ancient.

The arms of Jean II de Condet in the Armorial de Gelre, provide an example of "vair in chevron."

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.

Vairy en pointe can be seen in the arms of Dr. Malcolm Robert Golin.[22] (http://www.whitelionsociety.org.uk/Slidesandblazon/Slide24.GIF)

Vair in pale has the "bells" or "shields" of one tincture "lined up" (in pale) above one another.

Vair is thought to originate from the white and blue-grey fur of a type of squirrel being sewn together.

Potent and counter-potent follow the same rules as 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.)

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.

There are normally four rows on a vairy shield.

Where there are more than four, the term menu-vair is used. This is the English word "miniver", which was the general word for the fur lining used for robes of state.

Where there are fewer than four the term beffroi is sometimes used, probably from the shape of a piece of vair, which looks like a church tower, from the French “beffroi, belfry”. 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.

The word derives from Old French berfroi and Old High German bergfrid, "that which guards the peace".

Two rows are sometimes called gros-vair.

The term "vair" may have originally been cognate with “varied”, and was certainly used to describe horses of a mottled or spotted pattern.

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.

Proper

Objects may also be depicted in their natural colours. In this case, they are described as "proper". Sometimes a colour must also then be given (e.g. a white horse proper).

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.

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.

Likewise, instead of Vert, a fess Or between two lions passant Or, one would say, Vert, a fess between two lions passant Or.

Counterchanging

When a charge is placed across a division line, variation, or ordinary, it may be blazoned counterchanged.

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.

eo:Heraldikaj koloroj fr:héraldique it:Smalto (araldico) pl:tynktura