Everything about Rule Of Tincture totally explained
The first rule of heraldry is the
rule of tincture:
metal shouldn't be put on metal, nor colour on colour (Humphrey Llwyd,
1568). This means that
or and
argent (gold and silver, which are represented by yellow and white) may not be placed on each other, and neither may one of the
colours (tinctures that are neither
or nor
argent) be placed on another colour.
Application
The main duty of a
heraldic device is to be easily recognisable. It has been deemed that certain
tincture pairs are difficult to distinguish when placed atop or next to each other. Specifically, a dark colour is very difficult to distinguish if it's placed on top of another dark colour, and likewise a light metal is very difficult to distinguish on top of another light metal. When fields or charges are divided into bands of alternating tinctures, the tinctures of the bands alternate between a colour and a metal next to each other.
Though this is the practical genesis of the rule, the rule is technical and appearance isn't used in determining whether arms conform to the rule. Another reason sometimes given to justify this rule is that it was difficult to paint with enamel (colour) over enamel, or with metal over metal.
The rule of tincture doesn't apply to
furs (so furs are sometimes called "amphibious"), nor to charges
proper (in natural, what is supposed to be natural, or conventional colouration). (The blazoning of a charge "proper" can be used as a type of loophole when its natural colouration is or approaches another heraldic tincture and, if so blazoned, it would violate the rule of tincture. This has occasionally gone so far as to say, for example,
a white horse proper -- a "white horse proper" could be placed on an or field, but "a horse argent" could not, though the two are identical in appearance.) Furs and charges blazoned as proper can be placed on colour, metal, fur, or other charges blazoned as proper.
Simple
divisions of the field are considered to be
beside each other, not one on top of the other; so the rule of tincture doesn't apply. In practice, however, fields divided into multiple partitions (with extremely rare exceptions), such as checky or
lozengy, use an alternating pattern of metal and colour for adjacent units.
The rule also doesn't apply to charges placed upon party-coloured (divided) or patterned fields; a field party or patterned of a colour and metal may have a charge of either colour, metal, or party or patterned, placed on it (and there's a small body of precedent that a field party of two colours or two metals may have a charge or charges of either colour, metal, or party or patterned on it; examples of this certainly exist. Likewise, a party-coloured (of colour and metal) charge may be placed on either a colour or metal background. Neither does the rule apply to the tongue, horns, claws, hoofs of beasts (for instance, a lion or on an azure field could be
langued [withhis tongue]
gules) when of a different tincture than the rest of the animal, or other parts of charges that are "attached" to them -- for instance, a ship sable on an or field may have argent sails as the sails are considered to be attached on the ship rather than charged on the field.
Another apparent violation that isn't regarded as such is the "very uncommon" practice of a
bordure of the same tincture of the field being blazoned as "embordured;" while well-known in former times this is unusual in the extreme today.
The colours
bleu celeste and the U.S. Institute of Heraldry-invented
buff have sometimes been treated (with respect to the rule of tincture) as if they're metals, though such a treatment is certainly of debatable propriety.
Violations
This rule is so closely followed that arms that violate it are called
armes fausses (false arms) or
armes à enquérir (arms of enquiry); any violation is presumed to be intentional, to the point that one is supposed to inquire how it came to pass.
One of the most famous
armes à enquérir (often erroneously said to be the only example) was the
arms chosen by
Godfrey of Bouillon when he was made
King of Jerusalem, which had five gold crosses potent on a silver field (traditionally rendered "Argent, five crosses potent Or").
This use of metal on metal is seen on the Arms of the King of Jerusalem, the Bishop's mitre in the Arms of Andorra and the arms of the county of
Nord-Trøndelag in Norway (which is based on the Arms of
St. Olav as described in the sagas of
Snorri). It indicates the exceptional holy and special status of the Coat of Arms.
An example of "colour on colour" is the arms of
Albania, with its sable
two-headed eagle on a gules field. This is illegal according to the rules of English and French heraldry; but in some jurisdictions sable is considered a fur rather than a colour.
Image:Albania state emblem.svg|Emblem of Albania (colour on colour)
Image:zeme-herbas.png|The historical coat of arms of Samogitia (colour on colour)
Image:Flag of the UNIA.svg|Pan-African flag
On the rare occasions this rule has been violated, the offending charge has perhaps most often been a
chief, which has led some commentators to question whether the rule should apply to a chief, or even whether a chief should be considered a charge at all, but rather a division of the field. (These violations usually occur in the case of
landscape heraldry and
augmentations, although French civic heraldry, with its frequent chiefs of France [witheither three fleurs-de-lys or on an azure field or azure, seme-de-lys or], often violate this rule when the field is of a colour; the arms of
Harvard Law School, with its gules chief on an azure field, is another example.) However, this is a radically minorial view.
In French heraldry the term
cousu ("sewn") is sometimes in blazon used to get around what would otherwise be a violation of the rule; though this is used generally, occasionally a distinction is drawn between the
cousu of colour on colour and the
soudré of metal-on-metal, though this has fallen from fashion to a large degree. In Italian heraldry terms such as
per inchiesta are used in the blazons of the extremely rare violations of the rule, to acknowledge their exceptionality, or impropriety.
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Marks of
cadency (whether bordures, the marks of the English cadency system, or any other mark) (and presumably
marks of distinction), can be exceptions to this rule. (An example would be the arms of
Anjou: Azure three fleurs-de-lys or and a bordure gules.
(External Link) Also, in
Great Britain, cantons added to indicate
baronetcy of Ulster (argent a hand couped gules) ignore this rule; otherwise they could be displayed by no one with a metal field. Augmentations and, in theory, abatements don't have to conform to the rule.
Another violation which is usually not worried about is a green mount on a blue field representing the sky, and any of several methods of depicting the
sea,
waves or the like are similarly treated. A green trimount also appears in the coat of arms of
Hungary (shown at right). In this case the field is gules (red), and by the rule of tincture should therefore have only light colored charges upon it. Instead, there's a trimount vert used in violation of the rule. However, it has been argued by some that the mount vert or trimount issues from the base of the shield rather than being a charge on it, causing the rule not to apply.
Fimbriation, the surrounding of a charge by a thin border, can obviate what would otherwise be a violation of the rule, as in the
Union Jack (which, although a flag rather than a shield, was designed using heraldic principles). The "divise," a thin band running underneath the chief in French heraldry, can also obviate a violation, as can the parallel "fillet" in English heraldry.
Modern design principle
The rule of tincture has had an influence reaching far beyond heraldry. It has been applied to the design of flags, so that the flag of
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach was modified to conform to the rule. The rule of tincture has also influenced
Web design with respect to what colour font should be placed on what colour background. Almost all
license plates and
traffic signs, intentionally or unintentionally, follow it.
Further Information
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