| Rule Of Tincture |
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APPLICATION The main duty of a Heraldic Device is to be easily recognisable. It has been deemed that certain Tincture pairs are difficult to distinguish when placed atop or next to each other. Specifically, a dark colour is very difficult to distinguish if it is placed on top of another dark colour, and likewise a light metal is very difficult to distinguish on top of another light metal. 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). (The blazoning of a charge "proper" can be used as a type of loophole when its natural colouration is or approaches a heraldic tincture and, if so blazoned, it would violate the rule of tincture. This has occasionally gone so far as to say, for example, ''a white horse proper'' -- a "white horse proper" could be placed on an or field, but "a horse argent" could not, though the two are identical in appearance.) 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) or patterned fields; a field party or patterned of a colour and metal may have a charge of either colour, metal, or party or patterned, placed on it (and there is a small body of precedent that a field party of two colours or two metals may have a charge or charges of either colour, metal, or party or patterned on it; examples of this certainly exist1. 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, or other parts of charges that are "attached" to them -- for instance, a ship sable on an or field may have argent sails as the sails are considered to be attached on the ship rather than charged on the field. Another apparent violation that is not regarded as such is the "very uncommon" practice of a Bordure of the same tincture of the field being blazoned as "embordured;" while well-known in former times this is unusual in the extreme today.2 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 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 inquire how it came to pass. One of the most famous ''armes à enquérir'' (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"). This use of metal on metal is seen on the Arms of the King of Jerusalem, the Bishop's mitre in the Arms of Andorra and the arms of the county of Nord-Trøndelag in Norway (which is based on the Arms of St. Olav as described in the sagas of Snorri ). It indicates the exceptional holy and special status of the Coat of Arms. An example of "colour on colour" is the arms of Albania , with its sable Two-headed Eagle on a gules field. This is illegal according to the rules of English and French heraldry; but in some jurisdictions sable is considered a fur rather than a colour. |
Image:zeme-herbaspng<center>The Historical Coat Of Arms Of
| "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/Eldership_of_Samogitia" class="copylinks">Samogitia (colour on colour) |
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