Heraldic Tincture
There are only two metals, Or (yellow) Argent (white)
There have been over a dozen colours used in the history of heraldry, However in the SCA only five are used. Sable (black) Gules (red) Azure (blue) Vert (green) Purpure (purple)
furs used in heraldry are known as.The Metals
Or (gold, often depicted as yellow) drawn as black dots
Argent (silver, ussually depicted as white) drawn as whiteThe Colours
Sable (black, ussually depicted as black) drawn as a fully darckend area
Gules (red, ussually depicted as red) drawn as vertical lines
Azure (blue, ussually depicted as blue) drawn as horizontal lines
Vert (green, ussually depicted as green) drawn as diagonal lines from left to right
Purpure (purple, ussually depicted as purple) drawn as diagonal lines from right to left
Murrey (mulberry ussually depicted as berry-red) drawn as crossing diagonal lines
Sanguine (blood ussually depicted as rich-red) drawn as horizontal and diagonal lines from left to right
Tenne (brown ussually depicted as brown) drawn as vertical and diagonal lines from left to right
Orange (orange), ussually depicted as orange) drawn as segmented vertical linesThe Furs
The most common furs, each of which is possessed of several variations, are Ermine (white with black "tails") and Vair (witw and blue "pelts"). With the exception of Potent, the Vair variations are rare, as are Plumete (feathers) and Papellone(scales)
This form to the right is a heraldic ermine tail. ussually depicted as three dots with an arrow head like this. The ermines allways have these tails
Ermine (ussually depicted as black ermine tails on white)
Ermines (ussually depicted as white ermine tails on black)
Erminois (ussually depicted as black ermine tails on yellow)
Pean (ussually depicted as yellow ermine tails on black)
Vair
Countervair
Vair en point
Vair in pale
Vairy
Countervairy
Vairy en point
Vairy in pale
Potent
Counterpotent
Potent en point
Papellone (scales)
Plumete (feathers)Where a charge is represented in its natural colours it is described as "proper".
Metals and colours, but not furs, are subject to the tincture convention. This is a fundamental "rule" of armory and heraldry: that metal shal not lie on metal, nor colour on colour. This convention seems to have been universally accepted from the earliest times and is clearly intended to facilitate the accurate identification of heral devices at a distance. a blue cross on a silver field is clearer than a blue cross on a black field, for example. The convention applies only to charges that are placed upon a field or another charge. Adjacent divisions of varied and parted fields, for example, lie next to each other and do not break the "rule"; neither do bordures (borders) or charges placed on varied or parted field of alternating metal and colour. The rule does not apply to furs, though clearly a white charge on an ermine field would normally be avoided. Exceptions will, of cource, be found, and these are ussually for a variety of reasons:
