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).
| Tincture | Heraldic name |
|---|---|
| Metals | |
| Gold/Yellow | Or * |
| Silver/White | Argent |
| Colours | |
| Blue | Azure |
| Red | Gules |
| Purple | Purpure |
| Black | Sable |
| Green | Vert |
* Or is usually spelled with a capital letter (Gules, a fess Or) so as not to confuse it with the conjunction "or.")
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 two are of more than exceptional use in British heraldry: sanguine (blood-red) and tenné (orange or tan). These were sometimes called stainand colours, as some rebatements of honour were blazoned of these colours.
Other colours, particularly those used in Europe, include:
- murrey (mulberry-coloured),
- carnation (the colour of Caucasian human skin - most common in France),
- bleu celeste (also ciel or celeste - sky-blue),
- cendrée (dark grey).
These are rare - the seven primary tinctures are the most common ones.
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, 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.
This rule is so closely followed that arms that violate it are called armes à enquerre, or 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 enquerre was the shield of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which had gold crosses on white.
On the rare occasions this rule has been violated, the offending charge has 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. However, this is a radically minorial view. Another violation which is usually not worried about is a green mount on a blue field representing the sky.
Furs
Furs, such as ermine, ermines, or vair, are regular variations of the field that represent various types of actual fur.
Ermine and its variants
| Ermine spots |
Ermine is a field argent, semé (see variations of the field) of ermine-spots sable. 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.
Ermines is the reverse of ermine - a field sable semé of ermine-spots argent.
Erminois is ermine with a field Or instead of argent, and pean is the reverse of erminois.
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.
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 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.
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).