[ANSTHRLD] June ILoI

[Tim McDaniel]

On Sun, 10 Jun 2001, Paul Haines <wyrmclaw at ev1.net> wrote:
> Just from a quick glance, #13, "Argent, a falcon sable and on a
> chief sable three fountains."  What tincture are the fountains

There are two types of "fountains" in heraldry.  "Natural fountains"
are mechanical devices for squirting water out in decorative ways.
A "fountain" is heraldic fountain: a roundel barry wavy azure and
argent.  Thus there is no tincture missing: "a fountain" includes its
own tincture just like any of the other special named roundels, like
"a bezant", "a plate", et cetera.

There are other examples in heraldry where there's a natural X and a
heraldic X and the heraldic X is the default.  For example, "a natural
dolphin" looks like Flipper; "a dolphin" looks like a mutant demon
dolphin from the pits of Hell.  A "natural tiger" (sometimes a
"tiger") is the cute Asian kitty cat that can rip your face off;
a "tyger" is a sort of wolfy-like thingy with a beak.

> or do they default back to argent as the only color listed besides
> sable?

No.  Never.  Tinctures do not go forwards in heraldry.
Only backwards.  A hypothetical
    Argent, a falcon sable and on a chief sable three NATURAL fountains.
would not have "sable" or "argent" applied to the natural fountains;
it would simply be an incomplete blazon.

(If you see an incomplete blazon on a printed ILoI and you want to
save time for the submitter, you might make an assumption about what
the tincture is and conflict-check that assumption.  On an e-mail
list, there's no point -- simply write back and ask for a
clarification of the blazon, just as you did.)

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)