Variation of the field

In heraldry, variations of the field are any of a number of ways that a field (or a charge) may be covered with a pattern, rather than a flat tincture or a simple division of the field.

Contents

1 Patterning with ordinaries and subordinaries

2 Semé

3 Masoned

4 Diapering

Patterning with ordinaries and subordinaries

The diminutives of the ordinaries are frequently employed to vary the field.

When the field is patterned with either six or eight horizontal (fesswise) stripes, this is described as barry of six or eight, with the colour and metal specified, e.g. barry of six argent and gules (this implies that the chiefmost piece is argent). With ten or more pieces, the field is described as barruly.

Composed of pallets, the field is paly; of bendlets, bendy; in a bend-sinister-wise fashion (of skarpes, the diminutive in England of the bend sinister), bendy sinister; of chevronels, chevronny.

Note that the number of pieces is always even. A field divided into thirteen vertical stripes, alternating argent and gules, would not be paly of thirteen, argent and gules, but argent, six pallets gules. (This is the lower portion of the shield on the Great Seal of the United States of America; however, the incorrect blazon is usually used anyway, to preserve the reference to the thirteen original colonies.)

If no number of pieces is specified, it may be left up to the heraldic artist (but is still an even number).

An instance of a fess... paly Sable, Argent, [Bleu] Celeste and Or occurs in the arms of the 158th Quartermaster Battalion of the United States Army,[1] (http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/QM/158QuartermasterBattalion.htm) although this is atypical terminology and it could be argued that the fess should be blazoned as "per pale, in dexter per pale Sable and Argent, and in sinister per pale Bleu Celeste and Or".

An instance of a cross bendy of three tinctures occurred in the modern arms of the Count of Schwarzbourg.[2] (http://www.heraldique-europeenne.org/Regions/Allemagne/Schwarzbourg.htm)

When the shield is divided by lines both palewise and bendwise, with the pieces coloured alternately like a chess board, this is paly-bendy (there is a well-known example of paly-bendy lozengy on the flag of Maryland -- see below for more information on lozengy); if the diagonal lines are reversed, paly-bendy sinister[3] (http://www.theheraldrysociety.com/resources/anthonywood.htm); if horizontal rather than vertical lines are used, barry-bendy; and mutatis mutandis, barry-bendy sinister.

When the shield is divided by both bendwise and bendwise-sinister lines, creating a field of lozenges (again coloured like a chessboard), the result is lozengy. (But generally lozengy is depicted with the lozenges narrower in width than would be bendy dexter and sinister, which at least in theory would be a different field.) Lozengy in the field must be distinguished from an ordinary such as a bend which is blazoned of one tincture and called "lozengy"; this means that the ordinary is entirely composed of lozenges. (The arms of Bavaria have occasionally been blazoned and emblazoned as lozengy fesswise; that is, with the narrower axis of the component lozenges vertically rather than horizontally oriented. Similarly, Landkreis Erding adopted arms with a chief bendy lozengy[4] (http://flagspot.net/flags/de-by-ed.html), and the arms of Crofts of Dalton in Lancashire, England are Bendy lozengy argent and sable.[5] (http://freepages.family.rootsweb.com/~heraldry/bga_crofton_crome.html)) In paly bendy the bendwise lines are supposed to be less acute than in plain lozengy.[6] (http://www02.so-net.ne.jp/~saitou/cgi-bin/more.cgi?input=Lozengy)) A field masculy is composed entirely of mascules; that is, lozenges pierced with a lozenge shape -- this creates a solid fretwork surface and is to be distinguished from a field fretty, composed of bendlets and bendlets-sinister, interleaved over one another to give the impression of a trellis. (It is rare for the number of pieces of the fretty to be specified, though this is sometimes done in French blazon.) (The bendlets and bendlets sinister can, in extremely rare cases like the arms of David Robert Wooten, in which they are raguly, be other than straight. Objects can be placed in the position of the bendlets and bendlets sinister and described as "fretty of," as in the arms of the Muine Bheag Town Commissioners: "Party per fess or fretty of blackthorn branches leaves proper and ermine, a fess wavy azure"[7] (http://www.nli.ie/fr_offi.htm). Square fretty is the same as fretty, but it is composed of barrulets and pallets.[8] (http://www.theheraldrysociety.com/resources/leonardjohnweaver.htm)[These are not, strictly speaking, variations of the field, since they is depicted as being on the field rather than in it.] A similar situation is the field pappellony, showing an overlay of a pattern like the wings of a butterfly.[9] (http://forgottensea.50megs.com/armory/lydiaoshannan.html) (The number of rows of pappellony are sometimes defined, such as the seven of the Aleberici Family of Bologna.) The shield of Chateaubriand (http://www.heraldique-europeenne.org/Regions/France/Chateaubriand.htm) shows an instance of the pappellony of the ancient arms being transformed into seme-de-lys in the new coat. The Italian term "'squamoso' (akin to the French term 'ecaille' meaning 'scaly')"[10] (http://www.regalis.com/reg/medherald.htm) are also similar. The town of Vilani, in Latvia, has part of its field honeycombed.[11] (http://www.daily-tangents.com/Gerboni/Cities/index.php3?city=Vilani) A field fusilly can be very difficult to distinguish from a field lozengy (in early days no clear distinction was made between lozenges and fusils); the fusil is supposed to be proportionately narrower than the lozenge, and the bendwise and bendwise-sinister lines are therefore more steeply sloped.

A field which seems to be composed of a number of triangular pieces is barry bendy and bendy sinister.

When divided by palewise and fesswise lines, the field is chequy. The arms of "Bleichröder, banker to Bismarck,"[12] (http://www.heraldica.org/topics/jewish.htm#titled-europe) show chequy fimbriated (the chequers being divided by thin lines). The arms of the 85th Air Division (Defense) of the United States Air Force show "a checky grid" on part of the field, though this is to be distinguished from "chequy".[13] (http://afhra.maxwell.af.mil/wwwroot/rso/airdivision_pages/0085ad.php) The number of chequers is generally indeterminate, though the fess in the arms of Robert Stewart, Lord of Lorn, they are blazoned as being "of four tracts" (in four horizontal rows)[14] (http://www.baronage.co.uk/jag-ht/jag013.html); and in arms of Toledo, fifteen chequers are specified. The number of vertical rows can also be specified. When a bend or bend sinister, or one of their diminutives, is chequy, the chequers follow the direction of the bend unless otherwise specified. James Parker cites the French term equipolle to mean chequy of nine, though mentions that this is identical to a cross quarter-pierced. He also gives the arms of Prospect as an unusual example of chequy, "Chequy in perspective argent and sable"[15] (http://www02.so-net.ne.jp/~saitou/cgi-bin/more.cgi?input=Chequy); this must be distinguished from cubes as a charge.[16] (http://www.wcsim.co.uk/coatofarms.htm) [The arms of David Lawrence Charles Hunt] show that every chequer of one tincture can be charged with a particular charge. Chequy is not "fanciable"; that is, the lines of chequy cannot be modified by [line (heraldry)|lines of partititon].[17] (http://www.grsampson.net/Ahtc.html)

Any of these patterns may be counterchanged by the addition of a division line; for example, barry argent and azure, counterchanged per fess or checquy Or and gules, counterchanged per chevron.

A shield that is divided quarterly and per saltire, forming eight triangular pieces, is gyronny; the first tincture in the blazon is that of the triange in dexter chief. (There are apparently very rare examples in which gyronny is of more than two tinctures.[18] (http://scotshistoryonline.co.uk/HSSforum/viewtopic.php?t=166)) Gyronny can also have a different number of pieces than eight; for example, Stoker, Lord Mayor of London, had a field gyronny of six; there may be gyronny of ten or twelve, and the arms of Clackson (http://www.clackson.com/heraldry/achievement.htm) provide an example of gyronny of sixteen. (There cannot be gyronny of four, as that would be either per saltire or quarterly, or three, as that would be tierced in pairle or tierced in pairle reversed.) While the gyrons of gyronny almost invariably meet in the fess point (the exact centre of the shield) the arms of the (http://www.geocities.com/bona_spes/uni/UZ.html) University of Zululand are an unusual example of gyronny meeting in the nombril point (a point on the shield midway between the fess point and the base point). Gyronny can be modified by the lines of partition.[19] (http://www.theheraldrysociety.com/resources/davidphillips.htm)

Any of the division lines composing the variations of the field above may be blazoned with one of the different line shapes; e.g. paly nebuly of six, Or and sable. One very common use of this is barry wavy azure and argent; this is used to represent, and may be blazoned as, waves of the sea proper.

Semé

When the field (or a charge) is described as semé of a sub-ordinary or other charge, it is depicted as being strewn over with many copies of that charge. Semé is regarded as part of the field.

To avoid confusion with a simple use of a large number of the same charge (e.g. Azure, fifteen fleurs-de-lis Or), the charges semé are ideally depicted cut off at the edge of the field, though in olden depictions this is often not the case. (There are some exceptions to this with some bordures, such as that of Jesus College, Cambridge, which despite a blazon of "seme" is invariably depicted with the "crowns Golde" on its bordure as indistinguishable from being charged with either eight or ten crowns.)

Most small charges can be depicted as semé, e.g. semé of roses, semé of estoiles, and so forth. In English heraldry, several types of small charges have special terms to refer to their state as semé:

semé of cross-crosslets: crusily
semé of fleurs-de-lis: semé-de-lis
semé of bezants: bezanté
semé of plates: platé
semé of billets: billeté
semé of annulets: annulletty
semé of sparks: étincellé;
semé of guttae: gouttée.
semé of torteaux (roundels gules): tortelly

When a field semé is of a metal, the charges strewn on it must be of a colour, and vice versa. The charges semé do not affect the tinctures available for the major charges: they follow the rule of tincture just as they would if the field were not semé.

The 1995-2002 arms of Rogaška Slatina, Slovenia show Vert, semee of Disks Or, decreasing in size from base to chief.[20] (http://zeljko-heimer-fame.from.hr/descr/si-obc14.html)

The heraldic furs of the ermine family appear to be semé of the "ermine dots," but they are not counted as such.

Masoned

A field may be masoned; that is, it may show a pattern like that of a masonry or brick wall. This can be "proper" or of a colour; if of a colour this is blazoned with the colour of the stones first, then the colour of the cracks between the stones, e.g. Argent masoned sable. Ordinaries may also be masoned.

Diapering

Diapering (covering areas of flat colour with a tracery design when depicting arms) is not considered a variation of the field; it is not specified in blazon, being a decision of the individual artist. A coat depicted with diapering is considered the same as a coat drawn from the same blazon but depicted without diapering.

Reference: