Part 8 (1/2)
Mr. Woodward, in his ”Treatise on Heraldry,” writes: ”Two curious forms of Vair occasionally met with in Italian or French coats are known as _Plumete_ and _Papelonne_.
In _Plumete_ the field is apparently covered with feathers. _Plumete d'argent et d'azur_ is the coat of Ceba (note that these are the tinctures of _Vair_); SOLDONIERI of Udine, _Plumete au natural_ (but the SOLDONIERI of Florence bore: _Vaire argent and sable_ with _a bordure chequy or and azure_); TENREMONDE of Brabant: _Plumete or and sable_. In the arms of the SCALTENIGHI of Padua, the BENZONI of Milan, the GIOLFINI, CATANEI, and NUVOLONI of Verona, each feather of the _plumete_ is said to be charged with an ermine spot sable.
The bearing of PAPELONNe is more frequently found; in it the field is covered with what appear to be scales, the heraldic term _papelonne_ being derived from a supposed resemblance of these scales to the wings of b.u.t.terflies; for example the coat of MONTI: _Gules, papelonne argent_.
DONZEL at Besancon bears: Papelonne d'or et de sable. It is worthy of note that Donze of Lorraine used: Gules, three bars wavy or. The FRANCONIS of Lausanne are said to bear: _de Gueules papelonne d'argent_, and on _a chief of the last a rose of the first_, but the coat is otherwise blazoned: _Vaire gules and or_, &c. The coat of ARQUINVILLIERS, or HARGENVILLIERS, in Picardy, of _d'Hermine papelonne de {84} gueules_ (not being understood, this has been blazoned ”_seme of caltraps_”). So also the coat of CHEMILLe appears in French books of blazon indifferently as: _d'Or papelonne de gueules_: and _d'Or seme de chausse-trapes de gueules_. GUeTTEVILLE DE GUeNONVILLE is said to bear: _d'Argent seme de chausse-trapes de sable_, but it is more probable that this is simply _d'Argent papelonne de sable_.
The BARISONI of Padua bear: _Or, a bend of scales, bendwise argent, on each scale an ermine spot sable, the bend bordered sable_. The ALBERICI of Bologna bear: _Papelonne of seven rows, four of argent, three of or_; but the ALBERGHI of the same city: _Papelonne of six rows, three of argent, as many of gules_. The connection with _vaire_ is much clearer in the latter than in the former. CAMBI (called FIGLIAMBUCHI), at Florence, carried: _d'Argent, papelonne de gueules_; MONTI of Florence and Sicily, and RONQUEROLLES of France the reverse.
No one who is familiar with the licence given to themselves by armorial painters and sculptors in Italy, who were often quite ignorant of the meaning of the blazons they depicted, will doubt for a moment the statement that Papelonne was originally a corruption from or perhaps is simply ill-drawn Vair.”
POTENT, and its less common variant COUNTER POTENT, are usually ranked in British heraldic works as separate furs. This has arisen from the writers being ignorant that in early times _Vair_ was frequently depicted in the form now known as _Potent_ (see Fig. 39, _q_). (By many heraldic writers the ordinary _Potent_ is styled _Potent-counter-potent_. When drawn in the ordinary way, _Potent_ alone suffices.) An example of _Vair_ in the form now known as Potent is afforded by the seal of JEANNE DE FLANDRE, wife of ENGUERRAND IV. (De Courcy); here the well-known arms of COURCY, _Barry of six vair and gules_, are depicted as if the bars of vair were composed of bars of _potent_ (VReE, _Genealogie des Comtes de Flandre_). In a _Roll of Arms of the time of Edward I._ the _Vair_ resembles _Potent_ (-counter-potent), which DR. PERCEVAL erroneously terms an ”invention of later date.” The name and the differentiation may be, but not the fact. In the First n.o.bility Roll of the year 1297, the arms of No. 8, ROBERT DE BRUIS, Baron of Brecknock, are: Barry of six, Vaire ermine and gules, and azure. Here the vair is potent; so is it also in No. 19, where the coat of INGELRAM DE GHISNES, or GYNES, is: Gules, a chief vair. The same coat is thus drawn in the Second n.o.bility Roll, 1299, No. 57. POTENT, like its original _Vair_, is always of _argent_ and _azure_, unless other tinctures are specified in the blazon. The name _Potent_ is the old English word for a crutch or walking-staff. Chaucer, in his description of ”Elde” (_i.e._ old age) writes:
”So olde she was, that she ne went A fote, but it were by potent.”
{85}
And though a potent is a heraldic charge, and a cross potent a well-known variety of that ordinary, ”potent” is usually intended to indicate the fur of blue and white as in Fig. 39, _q_. It is not of frequent usage, but it undoubtedly has an accepted place in British armory, as also has ”counter-potent,” which, following the same rules as counter-vair, results in a field as Fig. 39, _r_. The German terms for Potent and counter-potent are respectively _Sturzkruckenfeh_ and _gegensturzkruckenfeh_ German heraldry has evolved yet another variant of Potent, viz. _Verschobenes Gegensturzkruckenfeh_ (_i.e._ displaced potent-counter-potent), as in Fig.
39, _s_. There is still yet another German heraldic fur which is quite unknown in British armory. This is called _Kursch_, otherwise ”Vair bellies,” and is usually shown to be hairy and represented brown. Possibly this is the same as the _Plumete_ to which Mr. Woodward refers.
Some heraldic writers also speak of _varry_ as meaning the pieces of which the vair is composed; they also use the terms _vairy cuppy_ and _vairy ta.s.sy_ for _potent-counter-potent_, perhaps from the drawings in some instances resembling _cups_; that is a possible meaning of _ta.s.sa_. It may be said that all these variations of the ancient _vair_ arise from mere accident (generally bad drawing), supplemented by over refinement on the part of the heraldic writers who have described them. This generalisation may be extended in its application from vair to many other heraldic matters. To all intents and purposes British heraldry now or hitherto has only known vair and potent.
One of the earliest rules one learns in the study of armory is that colour cannot be placed upon colour, nor metal upon metal. Now this is a definite rule which must practically always be rigidly observed. Many writers have gone so far as to say that the only case of an infraction of this rule will be found in the arms of Jerusalem: Argent, a cross potent between four crosslets or. This was a favourite windmill at which the late Dr. Woodward tilted vigorously, and in the appendix to his ”Treatise on Heraldry” he enumerates some twenty-six instances of the violation of the rule. The whole of the instances he quoted, however, are taken from Continental armory, in which these exceptions--for even on the Continent such _armes fausses_ are noticeable exceptions--occur much more frequently than in this country. Nevertheless such exceptions _do_ occur in British armory, and the following instances of well-known coats which break the rule may be quoted.
The arms of Lloyd of Ffos-y-Bleiddied, co. Cardigan, and Danyrallt, co.
Carmarthen, are: ”Sable, a spearhead imbrued proper between three scaling-ladders argent, on a chief _gules_ a castle of the second.” Burke, in his ”General Armory,” says this coat of arms was granted to Cadifor ap Dyfnwal, ninth in descent from Roderick the Great, Prince of Wales, by his cousin the great Lord Rhys, for taking the castle of {86} Cardigan by escalade from the Earl of Clare and the Flemings in 1164. Another instance is a coat of Meredith recorded in Ulster's Office and now inherited by the Hon. Richard Edmund Meredith, a judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature of Ireland and a Judicial Commissioner of the Irish Land Commission. These arms are: ”Gules, on a chevron sable, between three goats' heads erased, as many trefoils or.” An instance of comparatively recent date will be found in the grant of the arms of Thackeray. A little careful research, no doubt, would produce a large number of English instances, but one is bound to admit the possibility that the great bulk of these cases may really be instances of augmentation.
Furs may be placed upon either metal or colour, as may also any charge which is termed proper. German heralds describe furs and natural colours as amphibious. It is perfectly legitimate to place fur upon fur, and though not often found, numbers of examples can be quoted; probably one will suffice. The arms of Richardson are: Sable, two hawks belled or, on a chief indented ermine, a pale ermines, and three lions' heads counterchanged. It is also correct to place ermine upon argent. But such coats are not very frequently found, and it is usual in designing a coat to endeavour to arrange that the fur shall be treated as metal or colour according to what may be its background. The reason for this is obvious. It is correct, though unusual, for a charge which is blazoned proper, and yet depicted in a recognised heraldic colour, to be placed upon colour; and where such cases occur, care should be taken that the charges are blazoned proper. A charge composed of more than one tincture, that is, of a metal and colour, may be placed upon a field of either; for example the well-known coat of Stewart, which is: Or, a fess chequy azure and argent; other examples being: Per pale ermine and azure, a fess wavy gules (Broadbent); and: Azure, a lion rampant argent, debruised by a fess per pale of the second and gules (Walsh); but in such coats it will usually be found that the first tincture of the composite charge should be in opposition to the field upon which it is superimposed. For instance, the arms of Stewart are: Or, a fess chequy azure and argent, and to blazon or depict them with a fess chequy argent and azure would be incorrect. When an ordinary is charged upon both metal and colour, it would be quite correct for it to be of either metal, colour, or fur, and in such cases it has never been considered either exceptional or an infraction of the rule that colour must not be placed upon colour, nor metal upon metal. There is one point, however, which is one of these little points one has to learn from actual experience, and which I believe has never yet been quoted in any handbook of heraldry, and that is, that this rule must be thrown overboard with regard to {87} crests and supporters. I cannot call to mind an instance of colour upon colour, but a gold collar around the neck of an argent crest will constantly be met with. The sinister supporter of the Royal achievement is a case in point, and this rule, which forbids colour upon colour, and metal upon metal, only holds with regard to supporters and crests when the crest or supporter itself is treated as a field and _charged with_ one or more objects. The Royal labels, as already stated, appear to be a standing infraction of the rule if white and argent are to be heraldically treated as identical. The rule is also disregarded entirely as regards augmentations and Scottish cadency bordures.
So long as the field is party, that is, divided into an equal number of pieces (for example, paly, barruly, or bendy, or party per bend or per chevron), it may be composed of two metals or two colours, because the pieces all being equal, and of equal number, they all are parts of the field lying in the same plane, none being charges.
Before leaving the subject of the field, one must not omit to mention certain exceptions which hardly fall within any of the before-mentioned categories. One of these can only be described by the word ”landscape.” It is not uncommon in British armory, though I know of but one instance where the actual field itself needs to be so described. This is the coat of the family of Franco, the paternal ancestors of Sir Ma.s.sey Lopes, Bart., and Lord Ludlow. The name was changed from Franco to Lopes by Royal Licence dated the 4th of May 1831. Whether this coat of arms originated in an English grant, or whether the English grant of it amounts to no more than an attempt at the registration of a previously existing or greatly similar foreign coat of arms for the name of Franco, I am unaware, but the coat certainly is blazoned: ”In a landscape field, a fountain, therefrom issuing a palm-tree all proper.”
But landscape has very extensively been made use of in the augmentations which were granted at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries. In these cases the augmentation very generally consisted of a chief and thereon a representation either of some fort or s.h.i.+p or action, and though the field of the augmentation is officially blazoned argent in nearly every case, there is no doubt the artist was permitted, and perhaps intended, to depict clouds and other ”atmosphere” to add to the verisimilitude of the picture. These augmentations will be more especially considered in a later chapter, but here one may perhaps be permitted to remark, that execrable as we now consider such landscape heraldry, it ought not to be condemned in the wholesale manner in which it has been, because it was typical of the over elaboration to be found in all art and all artistic ideas of the period in which we find it originating.
Heraldry and heraldic art have {88} always been a mirror of the artistic ideas prevalent at equivalent periods, and unless heraldry is to be wholly relegated to consideration as a dead subject, it is an anachronism to depict an action the date of which is well known (and which date it is desired to advertise and not conceal) in a method of art belonging to a different period. In family arms the case is different, as with those the idea apparently is always the concealment of the date of n.o.bility.
The ”landscape” variety of heraldry is more common in Germany than with us, and Strohl writes: ”Of very little heraldic worth are the old house and home signs as they were used by landed proprietors, tradesmen, and artisans or workmen, as indicative of their possessions, wares, or productions.
These signs, originally simply outline pictures, were later introduced into heraldic soil, inasmuch as bourgeois families raised to the n.o.bility adopted their house signs as heraldic charges upon their s.h.i.+elds.”
There are also many coats of arms which run: ”In base, a representation of water proper,” and one of the best instances of this will be found in the arms of Oxford, though for the sake of preserving the pun the coat in this case is blazoned: ”Argent, an ox gules pa.s.sing over a ford proper.” Similar instances occur in the arms of Renfrew, Queensferry, Leith, Ryde, and scores of other towns. It has always been considered permissible to represent these either by an attempt to depict natural water, or else in the ancient heraldic way of representing water, namely ”barry wavy argent and azure.” There are many other coats of arms which are of a similar character though specifically blazoned ”barry wavy argent and azure.” Now this representation of water in base can hardly be properly said to be a charge, but perhaps it might be dismissed as such were it not that one coat of arms exists in Scotland, the whole of the field of which is simply a representation of water. Unfortunately this coat of arms has never been matriculated in Lyon Register or received official sanction; but there is no doubt of its ancient usage, and were it to be now matriculated in conformity with the Act of 1672, there is very little doubt that the ancient characteristic would be retained. The arms are those of the town of Inveraray in Argylls.h.i.+re, and the blazon of the coat, according to the form it is depicted upon the Corporate seal, would be for the field: ”The sea proper, therein a net suspended from the dexter chief and the sinister fess points to the base; and entangled in its meshes five herrings,” which is about the most remarkable coat of arms I have ever come across.
Occasionally a ”field,” or portion of a field, will be found to be a representation of masonry. This may be either proper or of some metal or colour. The arms of the city of Bath are: ”Party per fesse {89} embattled azure and argent, the base masonry, in chief two bars wavy of the second; over all, a sword in pale gules, hilt and pommel or.” The arms of Reynell are: ”Argent, masoned sable, a chief indented of the second.”
SEME
The use of the term ”seme” must be considered before we leave the subject of the field. It simply means ”powdered with” or ”strewed with” any objects, the number of the latter being unlimited, the purpose being to evenly distribute them over the s.h.i.+eld. In depicting anything seme, care is usually taken that some of the charges (with which the field is seme) shall be partly defaced by the edges of the s.h.i.+eld, or the ordinary upon which they are charged, or by the superior charge itself, to indicate that the field is not charged with a specific number of objects.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 44.--Arms of John, Lord De la Warr (d. 1398). (From MS.
Ashm. 804, iv.)]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 45.--Arms of John, Lord Beaumont, K.G. (d. 1396). From his Garter Plate: 1 and 4, Beaumont; 2 and 3, azure, three garbs or (for Comyn).]