HERALDRY.-I. Heraldic fur. 2, 3. Escutcheons. 4-13. Coats-of-arms of ruling houses century; 16. Of 18th century.

19. Coat-of-arms of Japan; 20, of Persia; 21, of W

Austria.

of the old German confederacy. 14. Coat-of-arms of 13th century; 15, 17, 18. Of 15th Wurtemburg; 22, of China; 23, of Hungary; 24, of the Papal States; 25, of Brazil; 26, of

Coats of arms are distinguished from one another, not only by the charges or objects borne on them, but by the color of these charges, and of the field on which they are placed. The field may be of one color, or of more than one, divided by a partition line or lines varying in form. The first thing, then, to be mentioned in blazoning a shield -that is, describing it in technical language-is the color, or, as it is heraldically called, tincture of the field. Tinctures are either of metal, color strictly so called, or

fur. The metals used in heraldry are two-gold, termed or, and silver, argent -represented in painting by yellow and white. The colors are five-red, blue, black, green, and purple, known as gules, azure, sable, vert, and purpure. Metals and colors are indicated in uncolored heraldic engravings by points and hatched lines, an invention ascribed to father Silvestro di Petrasancta, an Italian herald of the 17th century. Or (fig. 2) is represented by points; for argent, the field is left plain. Gules is denoted by perpendicular, and azure,

by horizontal lines; sable, by lines perpendicular and horizontal crossing each other; vert, by diagonal lines from dexter chief to sinister base; purpure, by diagonal lines from sinister chief to dexter base. The furs were originally but two, ermine and vair. The former is represented by black spots resembling those of the fur of the animal called the ermine, on a white ground. Vair, said to have been taken from the fur of a squirrel, bluish-gray on the back and white on the belly, is expressed by blue and white shields, or bells in horizontal rows, the bases of the white resting on the bases of the blue. If the vair is of any other colors than white and blue, they must be specified. Various modifications of these furs were afterwards introduced, among others ermines, or ermine with the field sable and the spots argent; erminites, with a red hair on each side of the black spot; pean, with the field sable, and the spots or; counter-vair, or vair with the bells of one tincture placed base to base; and potent counter-potent, vair with crutch-shaped figures instead of bells.

It is an established rule of heraldry that metal should not be placed on metal, nor color on color; a rule more rigidly adhered to in English than in foreign heraldry. We have one remarkable transgression of it in the arms of the kingdom of Jerusalem founded by the crusaders, which are argent, a cross potent between four crosses or. A recognized exception exists wherever a charge lies over a field partly of metal and partly of color, or where an animal is (see infra) attired, armed, unguled, crowned, or chained with a tincture different from that of his body. Marks of cadency, chiefs, cantons, and bordures are also occasionally exempted from the general rule, being, according to some heralds, not laid on the shield, but cousu, or sewed to it.

Everything contained in the field of an escutcheon is called a charge. Charges are divided by heralds into the three classes

of honorable ordinaries, subordinaries, and common charges. Under the name of ordinaries or honorable ordinaries are included certain old and very frequent bearings, whose true peculiarity seems to be that, instead of being taken from extraneous objects, they are representations of the wooden or metal strengthenings of the ancient shields. They are ten in number: 1. The chief (fig. 3), the upper part of the shield separated from the rest by a horizontal line, and comprising, according to the requirements of heralds, one-third of it, though this proportion is seldom rigidly adhered to. Its diminutive is the fillet, supposed to take up one-fourth the space of a chief, in whose lowest part it stands.

2. The pale (fig. 4) a band or stripe from top to bottom, said, like the chief, to Occupy one-third of the shield. It has two diminutives, the pallet, one-half in breadth of the pale, and the indorse, one-half of the pallet.

3. The bend (fig. 5), a similar band crossing the shield diagonally from dexter chief to sinister base. Its diminutives are the bendlet or garter, one-half of its breadth; the cost or cotise, one-half of the bendlet; and the riband, one-half of the cotise. The bend is sometimes borne between two cotises, in which case it is said to be cotised, a term sometimes applied with doubtful propriety to the other ordinaries when accompanied with their diminutives.