The rule of tincture is a design philosophy found in some heraldic traditions that states "metal should not be put on metal, nor colour on colour". [1] Heraldic furs such as ermine and vair, and charges described as "proper", are generally exempt from the rule of tincture.
Speculation about a rule regarding the use of tinctures first appeared in the Argentaye tract, a heraldic treatise dated to 1410. The Liber Armorum, dated to c. 1440, and the Blason des Couleurs, dated to c. 1440–1450, also mention the rule of tincture. This rule was purely conjectural on the heraldists' part. Earlier texts, such as the 1340 treatise De Heraudie, for example, makes no mention of the rule – even when discussing armorial bearings that violate the supposed rule. Other 14th century authors like Bartolo and Johannes de Baudo Aureo do not make mention of the rule either. [2] A modern hypothesis argues that it was simply impractical to paint colour over colour and inlay metals in metals with the tools available to early Mediaeval artisans. The simplest application, the theory suggests, would be to paint a single colour over a metal shield. This practical limitation of the early Mediaeval period was misinterpreted three centuries later as the so-called rule of tincture.
Regardless, by the late 17th century the rule of tincture had gained a foothold in many countries, and was proving particularly popular in Great Britain and France. [3] By the Victorian era the rule of tincture was considered de facto heraldic law in England, but the strict adherence to the rule proved to be impractical as arms became more complicated. Victorian heralds devised several technical exemptions to the rule of tincture during this period; these dispensations survive to this day as "lawful exemptions" to the rule.
In modern times the rule of tincture has been adopted by virtually all heraldic authorities and societies.
Proponents of the rule of tincture argue that the main duty of a coat of arms is to be easily recognisable, and that certain tincture pairs are difficult to distinguish when placed atop or over each other. Critics argue that the exceptions are so numerous that the rule is virtually meaningless. [4] The rule of tincture as described by Humphrey Llwyd in 1568 states that "metal should not be put on metal, nor colour on colour". The heraldic metals are Or and argent, and the colours are sable, gules, azure, vert, and purpure. The stains are considered colours for the purposes of the rule. The rule of tincture does not apply to furs, nor to charges that are displayed in their natural tinctures and blazoned "proper". [5] The rule of tincture also does not apply when a charge is composed of both a colour and metal, and can be placed on a field of either a colour or metal. [6]
Simple 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. A field party or patterned of a colour and metal may have a charge of either colour or metal placed upon it. [7] Likewise, a charged divided party or patterned of a colour and metal may be placed on either a colour or metal field. Boutell also exempts bordures from the rule of tincture. [8]
Fimbriation, the surrounding of a charge by a thin border, is often used to circumvent what would otherwise be a violation of the rule. In French heraldry a divise is a thin band added just beneath a chief to prevent violations, which is similar to the fillet in English heraldry.
The rule of tincture does not apply to the claws, horns, hooves, and tongues of animals. Fox-Davies wrote that, "A lion rampant and any other beast of prey is usually represented in heraldry with the tongue and claws of a different colour from the animal. If it is not itself gules, its tongue and claws are usually represented as of that colour, unless the lion be on a field of gules. They are then represented azure, the term being 'armed and langued' of such and such a colour." [6] [9] Furthermore, Fox-Davies wrote that "the distinction between white and silver is marked, and a white label upon a gold lion is not metal upon metal." The same is true of white upon argent or yellow upon Or, when blazoned as such, even though argent and Or are commonly depicted as white and yellow respectively in heraldry. [6]
Another violation which is usually not worried about is a green mount on a blue field representing the sky, and some of the methods of depicting the sea, waves or the like are similarly treated. A green trimount also appears in the coat of arms of Hungary (shown below). In this case the field is gules (red); the rule of tincture should therefore exclude this use of a vert (green) trimount. Instead, there is a trimount vert used in violation of the rule. However, it has been argued by some that the mount vert or trimount issues from the base of the shield rather than being a charge on it, causing the rule not to apply.[ citation needed ]
Marks of cadency, marks of distinction, augmentations, and abatements are also exempted from the rule. Similarly, a baronet is entitled to display a canton or inescutcheon argent charged with a hand couped gules regardless if such a mark violates the tincture rule. According to Fox-Davies, the rule of tincture also does not apply to crests or supporters, except in such cases as the crest or supporter itself is treated as a field and charged with one or more objects. [10]
This rule of tincture is so closely followed in Great Britain and France that arms that violate the rule are called armes fausses or armes à enquérir. Likewise, in Italian heraldry violations are referred to as per inchiesta. [11] Any violation is presumed to be an invitation to inquire how the armorial bearings came to include a violation of the tincture rule. [12]
An example of "colour on colour" is the arms of Albania, with its two-headed eagle sable on a field gules. However, some writers in Central and Eastern European heraldry consider sable to have properties of both a metal and a colour, [13] not exclusively a colour as it is in Western Europe, so that black-on-colour combinations are not uncommon.
This rule is perhaps most often violated by a chief, leading some commentators to question whether the rule should apply to a chief, or even whether a chief should be considered a charge at all rather than a division of the field. These violations usually occur in the case of landscape heraldry and augmentations. French civic heraldry, with its frequent chiefs of France (i.e. "Azure, three fleurs-de-lys or", anciently "Azure, semée-de-lys or"), often violates this rule when the field is of a colour. The coat of arms appearing on the famous tapestry of The Lady and the Unicorn (Paris, c.1500) [14] was attributed until now by specialistes to the older branch and to the chief of the family Le Viste, Jean IV Le Viste, but it blatantly breaks the rules of French Heraldry. A new study of the tapestry suggests the probability of the intervention of a descendant of the younger branch, Antoine II Le Viste, as a sponsor of the tapestry, and indicates that the incorrect superposition of colours could have been a mere difference. [15]
In French heraldry, the term cousu ("sewn") is sometimes in blazon used to get around what would otherwise be a violation of the rule; though this is used generally, occasionally a distinction is drawn between the cousu of colour on colour and the soudé ("soldered") of metal on metal, though this has fallen from fashion to a large degree.
Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings, as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branch of heraldry, concerns the design and transmission of the heraldic achievement. The achievement, or armorial bearings usually includes a coat of arms on a shield, helmet and crest, together with any accompanying devices, such as supporters, badges, heraldic banners and mottoes.
In heraldry, argent is the tincture of silver, and belongs to the class of light tinctures called "metals". It is very frequently depicted as white and usually considered interchangeable with it. In engravings and line drawings, regions to be tinctured argent are either left blank, or indicated with the abbreviation ar.
In heraldry, gules is the tincture with the colour red. It is one of the class of five dark tinctures called "colours", the others being azure (blue), sable (black), vert (green) and purpure (purple).
In heraldry, tenné is a "stain", or non-standard tincture, of orange, light brown or orange-tawny colour.
Tincture is the limited palette of colours and patterns used in heraldry. The need to define, depict, and correctly blazon the various tinctures is one of the most important aspects of heraldic art and design.
In heraldry, the field (background) of a shield can be divided into more than one area, or subdivision, of different tinctures, usually following the lines of one of the ordinaries and carrying its name. Shields may be divided this way for differencing or for purposes of marshalling, or simply for style. The lines that divide a shield may not always be straight, and there is a system of terminology for describing patterned lines, which is also shared with the heraldic ordinaries.
In heraldry, variations of the field are any of a number of ways that a field may be covered with a pattern, rather than a flat tincture or a simple division of the field.
Ordinaries in heraldry are sometimes embellished with stripes of colour alongside them, have lumps added to them, shown with their edges arciform instead of straight, have their peaks and tops chopped off, pushed up and down out of the usual positions, or even broken apart.
Bleu celeste is a rarely occurring and non-standard tincture in heraldry. This tincture is sometimes also called ciel or simply celeste. It is depicted in a lighter shade than the range of shades of the more traditional tincture azure, which is the standard blue used in heraldry.
In heraldry, an ordinary is one of the two main types of charges, beside the mobile charges. An ordinary is a simple geometrical figure, bounded by straight lines and running from side to side or top to bottom of the shield. There are also some geometric charges known as subordinaries, which have been given lesser status by some heraldic writers, though most have been in use as long as the traditional ordinaries. Diminutives of ordinaries and some subordinaries are charges of the same shape, though thinner. Most of the ordinaries are theoretically said to occupy one-third of the shield; but this is rarely observed in practice, except when the ordinary is the only charge.
In British heraldry, sable is the tincture equivalent to black. It is one of the five dark tinctures called colours.
Vair, originating as a processed form of squirrel fur, gave its name to a set of different patterns used in heraldry. Heraldic vair represents a kind of fur common in the Middle Ages, made from pieces of the greyish-blue backs of squirrels sewn together with pieces of the animals' white underbellies. Vair is the second-most common fur in heraldry, after ermine.
In heraldry and vexillology, fimbriation is the placement of small stripes of contrasting colour around common charges or ordinaries, usually in order for them to stand out from the background, but often simply due to the designer's subjective aesthetic preferences, or for a more technical reason to avoid what would otherwise be a violation of the rule of tincture. While fimbriation almost invariably applies to both or all sides of a charge, there are very unusual examples of fimbriation on one side only. Another rather rare form is double fimbriation, where the charge or ordinary is accompanied by two stripes of colour instead of only one. In cases of double fimbriation the outer colour is blazoned first. The municipal flag of Mozirje, in Slovenia, show an example of fimbriation that itself is fimbriated.
Ermine in heraldry is a "fur", a type of tincture, consisting of a white background with a pattern of black shapes representing the winter coat of the stoat. The linings of medieval coronation cloaks and some other garments, usually reserved for use by high-ranking peers and royalty, were made by sewing many ermine furs together to produce a luxurious white fur with patterns of hanging black-tipped tails. Due largely to the association of the ermine fur with the linings of coronation cloaks, crowns and peerage caps, the heraldic tincture of ermine was usually reserved to similar applications in heraldry. In heraldry it has become especially associated with the Duchy of Brittany and Breton heraldry.
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image. The verb to blazon means to create such a description. The visual depiction of a coat of arms or flag has traditionally had considerable latitude in design, but a verbal blazon specifies the essentially distinctive elements. A coat of arms or flag is therefore primarily defined not by a picture but rather by the wording of its blazon. Blazon is also the specialized language in which a blazon is written, and, as a verb, the act of writing such a description. Blazonry is the art, craft or practice of creating a blazon. The language employed in blazonry has its own vocabulary, grammar and syntax, which becomes essential for comprehension when blazoning a complex coat of arms.
Tricking is a method for indicating the tinctures (colours) used in a coat of arms by means of text abbreviations written directly on the illustration. Tricking and hatching are the two primary methods employed in the system of heraldry to show colour in black and white illustrations.
In heraldry, a pile is a charge usually counted as one of the ordinaries. It consists of a wedge emerging from the upper edge of the shield and converging to a point near the base. If it touches the base, it is blazoned throughout.
A number of cross symbols were developed for the purpose of the emerging system of heraldry, which appeared in Western Europe in about 1200. This tradition is partly in the use of the Christian cross an emblem from the 11th century, and increasingly during the age of the Crusades. Many cross variants were developed in the classical tradition of heraldry during the late medieval and early modern periods. Heraldic crosses are inherited in modern iconographic traditions and are used in numerous national flags.
The heads of humans and other animals are frequently occurring charges in heraldry. The blazon, or heraldic description, usually states whether an animal's head is couped, erased, or cabossed. Human heads are often described in much greater detail, though some of these are identified by name with little or no further description.
A roundel is a circular charge in heraldry. Roundels are among the oldest charges used in coats of arms, dating from the start of the age of heraldry in Europe, circa 1200–1215. Roundels are typically a solid colour but may be charged with an item or be any of the furs used in heraldry. Roundels are similar to the annulet, which some heralds would refer to as a false roundel.
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