ANSTHRLD - colors for coats of arms

[tmcd at jump.net]

On 8 Jul 2000, George Basore <george.basore at scotland.com> wrote:
>   From: the Heraldof the Canton in Ponca City.

Ponca City ... flip, flip, flip ... I have only a world atlas to hand,
and it's not in there.  Now you've got me curious: where is it?  What
are you a canton of?  Does the canton have a proposed name?  (If not,
we'd be glad to help.  Too many groups settle on a name and *then* get
heraldic help.  Please avoid the word "Keep".)

Since both questions have hidden assumptions, I'm confused, and I'd
like to know the background starting from the beginning.  What
proposed or existing designs have lavender or silver?  Are you
considering possible conflicts, and if so, with what?  What is the
submitter trying to do?

>     Is lavender cosidered different from Purple?

The heraldic "tinctures" (what normal English would call "colors", but
that word has a specialized heraldic meaning) are

Heraldic  English
    Word  Word
    ----  ----
  argent: white
   azure: blue
   gules: red
      Or: yellow
   sable: black
    vert: green
 purpure: purple 

Other tinctures or patterns are built out of those.  For example,
"ermine" is a white background with black ermine spots; "vair" is half
blue and half white; et cetera.

"Proper" can be used for a charge that has a well-known tincture --
usually it's a plant or animal.  "A polar bear proper" would be white.
(In fact, we'd simply blazon it "a bear argent".)  There are a few
heraldic "propers" ("a sword proper", for example), but I'll omit
them.  "Brown [charges] proper" can be applied to charges which, in
their natural state, would reasonably be assumed to be brown.
"Leather proper" and "wood proper" are brown.

So my question is: how can you possibly get lavender in SCA armory?
The only way I can see it is by blazoning something that's naturally
lavender to be "a whatsit proper".  In all other cases, the submission
will be returned for use of a non-heraldic tincture.

>     What restrictions on use of silver?

Yes.  No.  Mu.  The question really doesn't make sense.

"Argent" in French literally means "silver", and "Or" in French
literally mean "gold".  In period, both yellow and gold were used to
depict "Or", and both white and silver were used to depict "argent".
We consider silver to be a synonym for "argent", so silver and argent
have exactly the same "restrictions", whatever you mean by that.

When filling out an SCA heraldic submission form, it is a supremely
bad idea to use metallic paint or pigment.  The form is often folded
or bent, and this can cause the pigment to flake off.  If the color
copy is scanned, I think a metallic layer can reflect and screw up the
scanning.  Metallic pigments may degrade or discolor over time.  Just
use the white background of the paper for "argent", and you ought to
use Crayola Classic Markers for the other tinctures.

That last advice is for submission forms only.  If you want to use
metallic paints for your shield, your feast box, your surcoat,
whatever, do as you like, and it's a fine practice, and any repainting
or discoloring is your problem.

Daniel de Lincolia
-- 
Tim McDaniel (home); Reply-To: tmcd at jump.net; 
if that fail, my work address is tmcd at us.ibm.com.
 "To join the Clueless Club, send a followup to this message quoting every-
 thing up to and including this sig!" -- Jukka.Korpela at hut.fi (Jukka Korpela)

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