| Rule Of Tincture |
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APPLICATION OF THE RULE 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. Though this is the practical genesis of the rule, the rule is technical and appearance is not used in determining whether arms conform to the rule. Another reason sometimes given to justify this rule is that it was difficult to paint with enamel (colour) over enamel, or with metal over metal. The rule of tincture does not apply to furs (so furs are sometimes called "amphibious"), nor to charges ''proper'' (in natural colouration). (It should be noted that the blazoning of a charge "proper" can be used as a type of loophole when its natural colouration is or approaches a heraldic tincture other than proper and, if so blazoned, would violate the rule of tincture, it can be blazoned as "proper" as a way of getting around this.) Furs and charges blazoned as proper can be placed on colour, metal, fur, or other charges blazoned as proper. 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. The rule also does not apply to party-coloured (divided) fields; a field party of a colour and metal may have a charge of either colour or metal placed on it. Likewise, a party-coloured (of colour and metal) charge may be placed on either a colour or metal background. Neither does the rule apply to the tongue, horns, claws, hoofs of beasts (for instance, a lion or on an azure field could be ''langued'' his tongue gules) when of a different tincture than the rest of the animal. The colours Bleu Celeste and the U.S. Institute of Heraldry-invented Buff have sometimes been treated (with respect to the rule of tincture) as if they are metals, though such a treatment is certainly of debatable propriety. VIOLATIONS OF THE RULE OF TINCTURE This rule is so closely followed that arms that violate it are called '' Armes Fausses '' (false arms) or '' Armes à Enquérir '' (arms of enquiry); any violation is presumed to be intentional, to the point that one is supposed to enquire how it came to pass. One of the most famous ''armes à enquerir'' (often erroneously said to be the only example) was the Arms chosen by Godfrey Of Bouillon when he was made King Of Jerusalem , which had five gold crosses potent on a silver field (traditionally rendered "Argent, five crosses potent Or"); a design that might have been modelled after the Arab technique of Damascus Steel . Thus, the arms have metal on metal - this perhaps was done on purpose, to emphasize the Arab techniques gained in the Levant. An example of "colour on colour" is the arms of Albania , with its sable two-headed eagle on a gules field. |
Image:Andorra Coapng<center>
| "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Coat_of_Arms_of_Andorra" class="copylinks">Coat Of Arms Of Andorra (metal on metal) |
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