HERALDRY 



661 



gradually more and more tasteless and unmeaning, 

 tin- lea-l oilensive being perhaps the vair-shaped 

 .shield (7). In France and (iermany the shield 

 most in n-e i^ MTV wide at the base, so as to 

 all'oid sufficient room for the display of quarter- 

 or small charges. In Spain the favourite 

 t \ pi' of shield has always l>een one with rectangular 

 sides and a segment of a circle for the base. The 

 shield oi an unmarried lady or widow is of a lozenge- 

 shape (8). 



lo facilitate the description, or as it is called 

 blazoning of arms, the dill'erent points or positions 

 on the escutcheon have received 

 technical names. English heralds 

 generally enumerate them as 

 nine: A (fig. II.), the dexter 

 chief point ; B, the middle chief ; 

 C, the sinister chief ; D, the 

 honour or collar point ; E, the 

 fess point ; F, the nombril or 

 navel point ; G, the dexter base ; 

 H, the middle base ; and I, the 

 sinister base point. To these 

 may be added K, the dexter 

 flank, and L, the sinister flank. It will be observed 

 that the dexter and sinister sides of the shield are 

 so called from their position in relation to the sup- 

 posed bearer of the shield, not of the spectator. 



2'inctitrcs. Coats-of-arms are distinguished from 

 each other not only by the charges or objects borne 

 on them, but by the colour of these charges, and of 

 the field itself. The field may be of one colour, 

 or of more than one, divided in various ways to 

 l>e noticed below. Tincture is the more proper 

 armorial expression than colour, as the surface of 

 a shield or of an armorial figure may be of a metal, 

 or a fur, as well as of a colour strictly so called. 



Fig. II. 



Argent. Gules. 



Azure. 



Sable. 



Vert. 



Purpure. Ermine. Vair. 

 Fig. III. Tinctures. 



The nomenclature of these three classes of tinctures, 

 as of heraldry generally, is an adaptation of Norman- 

 French. The metals in use are two gold, termed 

 or, and silver, argent, often represented in paint- 

 ing by yellow and white. The colours are five red, 

 blue, black, green, and purple, known as gules, 

 azure, sable, vert, and piirpure. A charge re- 

 presented not of any of these conventional heraldic 

 tinctures, but of its natural colour, is said to be 

 proper. In uncoloured heraldic engravings, it has 

 been found convenient to have a mode of represent- 

 ing colours and metals by hatched lines and dots, 

 which is shown in fig. III. ; an invention not 

 older than the 17th century. Or is represented 

 by dots ; for argent, the field is left plain ; 

 tfii/rti is denoted by perpendicular, and azure, by 

 horizontal lines; sable, by lines perpendicular and 

 horizontal crossing each other; rn-t, liv diagonal 

 lines from dexter chief to sinister l*ase ; and jwr- 

 pure, by diagonal lines from sinister chief to dexter 

 base. The original furs in use were ermine and 

 vair. The former is represented by black spots 

 resembling those of the fur of the animal called the 

 ermine, on a white ground. Vair, said to have 

 been taken from the fur of a squirrel, bluish-gray 

 on the back, and white on the belly, is expressed ( at 



least in the more modern heraldry) by blue and 

 white bells or panes in horizontal rows, tut shown 

 in the figure. AH the number of coats increased, 

 various mcMlilirations of them; furs were introduced, 

 iii'-linliii- > i mini'*, or ermine with tin- field black 

 ami the spots white; enninoin, with the field gold 

 and the spnts black ; erminiteji, with a red hair <>n 

 each side of the black spots ; pr.au, with tin; field 

 black and the spots gold. I'nti-nt is a crutch shaped 

 form of vair, as represented in the figure, and it also 

 hits occasional varieties whieh need not be noted 

 at length. When vair is com|M>sed of any other 

 tinctures than argent and azure, it is blazoned 

 verry of these tinctures, and is more strictly a field 

 divided by partition-lines than a fur. 



Charges. Everything depicted on the field of 

 the escutcheon is called a charge, and is supposed 

 to stand out in relief on it ; and as a general rule, 

 a shield -of -arms has one or more charges. A few 

 exceptional cases occur in continental heraldry of 

 an uncharged shield of one of the metals, colours, 

 or furs ; and even in British heraldry there are, as 

 will be seen, cases where a field consisting of metal 

 and colour divided by partition-lines is uncharged. 

 It is an established rule of heraldry 7 that metal 

 should not be placed on metal, nor colour on colour. 

 A remarkable transgression of it occurs in the 

 arms of the kingdom of Jerusalem founded by the 

 Crusaders, widen are argent, a cross potent be- 

 tween four crosses or. A recognised exception exists 

 wherever a charge lies over a field partly of metal 

 and partly of colour, or where an animal is (see 

 infra) armed, langued, attired, unguled, beaked. 

 membered, crowned, collared, or chained of a 

 different tincture from that of his body. One 

 charge of colour may surmount i.e. partly cover, 

 another of colour on a field of metal, and the same 

 may happen in case of two charges of metal on a 

 field of colour. 



Armorial charges are usually divided into three 

 classes : ( 1 ) Honourable ordinaries, figures of 

 simple outline and geometrical form, conventional 

 in character, which in some of the oldest coats are 

 the only charge ; (2) Subordinaries or subordinate 

 ordinaries, which differ from the above chiefly in 

 not being generally the recipients of charges, 

 while honourable ordinaries may be and often are 

 charged; (3) Common charges, representations of 

 objects of all kinds, animals, plants, and the whole 

 range of things natural and artificial. 



Ordinaries. The enumeration of the honourable 

 ordinaries by different armorialists is not absolutely 

 identical, some classing as subordinaries figures 

 which others regard as belonging to this class. It 

 may be predicated generally of the ordinaries that 

 they may be borne either simply, along with other 

 charges, charged with other figures, bounded by 

 any of the forms of irregular partition-lines to 

 be noticed below, or combined with each other. 

 Also that they have in most cases their diminu- 

 tives, which (except in the case of a canton as the 

 diminutive of a quarter) cannot be charged. Tak- 

 ing as our test for admission to this more honour- 

 able class the capacity of receiving charges, they 

 may be accounted thirteen in number : 



The Chief (I, fig. IV.), lying horizontally along 

 the upper part of the shield, and (as also the Pale 

 and Fess) supposed to occupy a third of it. The 

 Pale (2), a vertical iMind in the middle of a shield. 

 It has a diminutive, the Pallet, seldom used singly, 

 and a smaller diminutive, the Endorse. The Fess 

 ( 3 ), a horizontal band in the middle of the shield. 

 The Bar is a narrower fess, never used singly, 

 and there are further diminutives, the Closet and 

 Bamilet. The Re ml (<j.v.) (4), a band crossing 

 the shield from dexter chief to sinister base ; when 

 charged it occupies one-third, and when plain 

 one-fifth, of the field. It has for diminutives the 



