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Tincture: Metals, Colors & Furs

Tincture is considered to encompass colors, metals and furs. In colored displays of arms, tincture is fairly self-evident. However, in black and white representations of arms (such as most bookplates), the tincture of the various aspects must be represented through hatching (i.e., patterns of lines and dots). These hatching patterns are shown below.

  • Metals: or (gold), argent (silver)

  • Colors: gules (red), azure (blue), sable (black), vert (green), purpure (purple), tenné (orange), sanguine (blood red)

  • Furs: ermine, vair, potent

Of the various tinctures, the fur vair requires some additional description. Vair is traditionally argent and azure (i.e., silver and blue). If no colors are mentioned in the blazoning, it is assumed to be done with those traditional tinctures. When the pattern appears in other tinctures, it is said to be vairy. For example, if the patterns shown are dots and vertical stripes, the object so drawn is blazoned vairy or and gules.

It is traditional in heraldry that the design should always be such that color is not laid upon color, nor metal upon metal. While this rule is not universally adhered to, it is generally the case that a shield will have either metal charges upon a colored background, or colored charges upon a metal background.

Metals

  • a shield with an all over pattern of dots

    or (gold)

  • a solid white shield

    argent (silver)

Colors

  • a shield with an all over pattern of vertical lines

    gules (red)

  • a shield with an all over pattern of horizontal lines

    azure (blue)

  • a shield with an all over pattern of crosshatch horizontal and vertical lines

    sable (black)

  • a solid black shield

    alternate sable

  • a shield with an all over pattern of diagonal lines, top left down to bottom right

    vert (green)

  • a shield with an all over pattern of diagonal lines, bottom left up to top right

    purpure (purple)

  • a shield with an all over pattern of crosshatch vertical and diagonal lines

    tenné (orange)

  • a shield with an all over pattern of crosshatch diagonal lines

    sanguine (dark red)

Furs

  • a shield with an all over pattern of arrowhead triangles pointing up, black on white

    ermine

  • a shield with an all over pattern of arrowhead triangles pointing up, white on black

    ermines

  • a shield with an all over pattern of arrowhead triangles pointing up, black on a dotted white background

    erminois

  • a shield with an all over pattern of arrowhead triangles pointing up, dotted white on a black background

    pean

  • bell-shaped patches in an alternating pattern of blue and white, in which each shape stands broad edge to broad edge or point to point with one of the opposite tincture above or below it

    vair

  • bell-shaped patches in an alternating pattern of blue and white, in which each shape stands broad edge to broad edge or point to point with one of the same tincture above or below it

    counter-vair

  • T-shaped patches in an alternating pattern of blue and white, in which each shape stands broad edge to broad edge or narrow edge to narrow edge with one of the opposite tincture above or below it

    potent

  • T-shaped patches in an alternating pattern of blue and white, in which each shape stands broad edge to broad edge or narrow edge to narrow edge with one of the same tincture above or below it

    counter-potent

  • bell-shaped patches in an alternating pattern of blue and white, in which each shape stands broad edge to point with one of the same tincture above or below it

    vair in pale

  • bell-shaped patches in an alternating pattern of blue and white, in which each shape stands broad edge to broad edge or point to point with one of the opposite tincture above or below it, shifted by half to the left or right to create a wave-like pattern

    vair en pointe

  • bell-shaped patches in an alternating pattern of blue and white, in which each shape stands broad edge to broad edge or point to point with one of the opposite tincture above or below it, with each shape additionally divided along a vertical axis into blue and white

    alternate vair

  • bell-shaped patches in diagonal lines of four tinctures, here black, white, red and gold, in which each shape stands broad edge to broad edge or point to point with the shape above or below it

    checked vair or vairy sable, argent, gules and or