[ANSTHRLD] Wherein Snorri Bangs his Head Against a Wall ...

[Teceangl]

> Quoth Blaise de Cormeilles:
> > No, there is no "paly of three".  
 
Requested Aryanhwy merch Catmael:
> Cite?  (Not that I disagree, but this is relevant to a submission
> I'm commenting on in Northshield, which involves "per fess, a fess...)

Hmph.  Let's see what I can find...

   Pierced per bend sinister.] We do not tierce of three colors in this         
   fashion. Only tierced per pall and tierced per pall inverted are             
   allowed to be of three colors. WVS [57] [LoAR 30 Nov 81], p. 7 

I nevre found a precedent banning the use of "tierced per fess/pale" but
I do note the term was dropped from use for fields after August 1981, and
that the August 1981 registration specified directly that the term meant
a specific ratio of tincture:

    Richard Ravenglas the Pure 
    . Tierced per bend azure, Or, and argent, a cross flory sable.
										       NOTE: This means the bend Or takes up one-third of the diagonal 
       width of the shield. Please draw it that way. 

After that the term "tierced per fess/pale" does not occur in the Ordinary
save for two instances of fieldless badges.  I remember the October 1998
one, which was originally blazoned "On a skyrocket per fess gules and azure
a fess argent," if my memory is working correctly.

Most recently, the term was used because it was grandfathered:

   [Tierced per chevron wavy throughout ...] ... the stylistic problems
   are allowed under the Grandfather Clause. The general form of her
   blazon, using the term tierced, has been held over from her previous
   device as well. [Allison Poinvillars de Tours, 09/01, A-?thelmearc]

- Teceangl
-- 
   This would give a headache to any herald who had to look at it long
	enough to blazon it. (KFW, 11 Aug 77 [14], p. 6)