Heraldic Tinctures

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Heraldic Tinctures: Tincture is the limited palette of colors and patterns used in heraldry. They are classified as metals, colours, or furs.

Colours and Metals

The metals are Or and Argent, representing gold and silver respectively, although in practice they are often depicted as yellow and white. As a general rule of Heraldic Design, do not put Metals on Metals or Colors on Colors (rule of tincture). The names of the Colours and Metals are derived from Norman French.

TYPE Metal Metal Colour Colour Colour Colour Colour
Tincture Argent100.gif Or100.gif Azure100.gif Gules100.gif Purpure100.gif Sable100.gif Vert100.gif
Monochrome

(Hatching)

Argent---Mono.png Or---Mono.png Azure---Mono.png Gules---Mono.png Purpure---Mono.png Sable---Mono.png Vert---Mono.png
Heraldic
Name
Argent
Or
Azure
Gules
Purpure
Sable
Vert
Vernacular
White or Silver
Yellow or Gold
Blue
Red
Purple/Violet
Black
Green
Arms of Caid, diapered

Hatching and Tricking

The use of hatching to illustrate heraldic tinctures is post-period, and was developed by Silvestro de Petra Sancta, in 1638, to facilitate printing on the relatively recently developed printing press. It was sometimes used in the SCA when color Xeroxing was not available. It is no longer in general use in the SCA. Before the use of hatching to depict individual heraldic tinctures, it was common to "trick" heraldic designs when colours were unavailable. The arms were drawn in outline, and the tinctures were written in abbreviated form. When submitting heraldic art to the College of Heralds, a Black & White outline version is always requested along with a colour version.

Stains

Stains (stainand colours or staynard colours): are generally not used in SCA Heraldry. In medieval heraldry, the use of a stain represented a less-than honorable augmentation (abatement or rebatement) imposed by an heraldic authority or by royal decree for misconduct (there is some historical debate on this). These colours include:

  • Murrey: Deep mulberry-coloured, or reddish purple (darker than Purpure).
  • Sanguine: Blood-red (darker than Gules)
  • Tenné (tawny): orange-tawny colour, though orange is considered distinct in continental European and African heraldic traditions.

Diapering

Diapering is decorating large areas of flat colour by drawing crosshatches or arabesques in the illustration of arms (right). This does not affect the blazon (heraldic description) and artistic license is allowed.

Furs

In earlier period, there were only two furs, ermine and vair. Ermine represents the fur of the stoat (Mustela erminea), a type of weasel, in its white winter coat, when it is called an ermine. Vair represents the winter coat of the red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris), which is blue-grey above and white below. There are examples of other "furs" but these are the most commonly used in SCA Heraldry.

Vair Counter-Vair Potent Counter-Potent Ermine Ermines Erminois Pean Papellone
Fur-- 0008 Vair.png Fur-Counter-Vair.png Fur-Potent.png Fur-CounterPotent.png Fur-Ermine.png Fur-Ermines.png Fur-Erminois.png Fur-Pean.png Fur-Papellone.png
Colours may vary Colours as Shown Colours as Shown Colours as Shown Colours as Shown Colours may vary

Proper

Arms of Rowena de Segovia
Or, an orange tree fructed and eradicated proper within a bordure invected sable.
Arms of Vivian of Silverlake
Per bend vert and Or, a wooden drop spindle proper threaded argent and a brown dog sejant guardant proper.

A charge that is coloured as it naturally appears is blazoned proper (Fr. propre), or "the colour of nature". An example would be, "an orange tree fructed and eradicated proper," (left). Objects that do not occur in nature may not be described as "proper," such as a dragon or wyvern, and must be described by colour. Natural objects which might naturally be of different colours may be further described to clarify the colour of the charge such as a "wooden drop spindle, proper, threaded argent" or a "brown dog" proper, (right).