animal was bluey-grey upon the back and white
underneath, and the whole skin was used. It will
be readily seen that by sewing a number of these
skins together a result is obtained of a series of
cup -shaped figures, alternating bluey-grey and
white, and this is well shown in Fig. 28, which
shows the effigy upon the tomb of Geoffrey Planta-
genet, Count of Anjou, where the lining of vair to
his cloak is plainly to be seen.

The word seems to have been used independ-
ently of heraldry for fur, and the following curious
error, which is pointed out in Parker's " Glossary
of the Terms used in Heraldry," may be noted in
passing. The familiar fairy tale of Cinderella was brought to us from

the French, and the slippers made of
this costly fur, written, probably, verre
for vaire t were erroneously translated
" glass " slippers. This was, of course,
an impossible material, but the error has
always been repeated in the nursery
tale-books.

In the oldest records vair is repre-
sented by means of straight horizontal
lines alternating with horizontal wavy or
nebuly lines (see Fig. 37), but the cup-
shaped divisions therefrom resulting hav-
ing passed through various intermediate
forms (see Fig. 38), have now been
stereotyped into a fixed geometrical
pattern, formed of rows of ear-shaped
shields of alternate colours and alternately reversed, so depicted that
each reversed shield fits into the space left by those on either side which
are not reversed (see Fig. 39, k). The accompanying illustration will
show plainly what is intended. In some of the older designs it was
similar to that shown in the arms of the Earl Ferrers, Earl of Derby,
1254-65, the sketch (Fig. 38) being taken from almost contemporary
stained glass in Dorchester Church, Oxon.; whilst sometimes the divi-



in u
it/uf



FIG. 38. Arms of Robert de Ferrers,
Earl of Derby (1254-1265). (From
stained glass in Dorchester Church.)



8o A COMPLETE GUIDE TO HERALDRY

sion lines are drawn, after the same manner, as nebuly. There does
not seem to have been any fixed proportion for the number of rows of
vair, as Fig. 40 shows the arms of the same Earl as represented upon his
seal. The palpable pun upon the name which a shield vaire supplied




no doubt affords the origin of the arms of Ferrers. Some families of
the name at a later date adopted the horseshoes, which are to be found
upon many Farrer and Ferrers shields, the popular assumption being
that they are a reference to the " farrier " from whom some would derive



UlAAAAA
IRAARA
XTW




FIG. 40. Arms of Robert de
Ferrers, Earl of Derby
(1254-1265). (From his
seal.)



FIG. 41. Arms of William de
Ferrers, Earl of Derby : Vaire,
or, and gules, a bordure argent,
charged with eight horseshoes
sable. (From a drawing of his
seal, MS. Cott. Julius, C vii.)



the surname. Woodward, however, states that a horseshoe being the
badge of the Marshalls, horseshoes were assumed as armes parlantes by
their descendants the Ferrers, who appear to have borne : Sable, six
horseshoes argent. As a matter of fact the only one of that family who
bore the horseshoes seems to have been William de Ferrers, Earl of
Derby (d. 1254), as will be seen from the arms as on his seal (Fig. 41).



THE FIELD OF A SHIELD 81

His wife was Sybilla, daughter of William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke.
His son reverted to the plain shield of vair, or, and gules. The arms
of the Ferrers family at a later date are found to be : Gules, seven
mascles conjoined or, in which form they are still borne by Ferrers
of Baddesley Clinton ; but whether the mascles are corruptions of the
horseshoes, or whether (as seems infinitely more probable) they are
merely a corrupted form of the vair, or, and gules, it is difficult to
say. Personally I rather doubt whether any Ferrers ever used the
arms : Argent, six horseshoes sable.

The early manner of depicting vair is still occasionally met with in
foreign heraldry, where it is blazoned as Vair onde or Vair ancien.
The family of MARGENS in Spain bears : Vair onde, on a bend gules
three griffins or ; and TARRAGONE of Spain : Vair ond, or and gules.
German heraldry seems to distinguish between wolkenfeh (cloud vair)
and wogenfeh (wave vair ; see Fig. 39, n). The former is equivalent to
vair ancient, the latter to vair en point.

The verbal blazon of vair nearly always commences with the metal,
but in the arrangement of the panes there is a difference between
French and English usage. In the former the white panes are
generally (and one thinks more correctly) represented as forming the
first, or upper, line ; in British heraldry the reverse is more usually the
case. It is usual to depict the white panes of ordinary vair with white
rather than silver, though the use of the latter cannot be said to be
incorrect, there being precedents in favour of that form. When an
ordinary is of vair or vairy, the rows of vair may be depicted either
horizontally or following the direction of the ordinary. There are
accepted precedents for both methods.

Vair is always blue and white, but the same subdivision of the
field is frequently found in other colours ; and when this is the case,
it is termed vairy of such and such colours. When it is vairy, it is
usually of a colour and metal, as in the case of Ferrers, Earls of Derby,
above referred to ; though a fur is sometimes found to take the place
of one or other, as in the arms of Gresley, which are : " Vaire gules
and ermine." I know of no instance where vaire is found of either
two metals or of two colours, nor at the same time do I know of any
rule against such a combination. Probably it will be time enough to
discuss the contingency when an instance comes to light. Gerard
Leigh mentions vair of three or more tinctures, but instances are
very rare. Parker, in his "Glossary," refers to the coat of Roger
Holthouse, which he blazons: " Vairy argent, azure, gules, and] or, en
point."

The Vair of commerce was formerly of three sizes, and the dis-
tinction is continued in foreign armory. The middle or ordinary

F



82 A COMPLETE GUIDE TO HERALDRY

size is known as Vair ; a smaller size as Menu-vair (whence our word
" miniver ") ; the largest as Beffroi or Gros vair, a term which is used
in armory when there are less than four rows. The word Beffroi is
evidently derived from the bell-like shape of the vair, the word Beffroi
being anciently used in the sense of the alarm-bell of a town. In French
armory, Beffroi should consist of three horizontal rows ; Vair, of four ;
Menu-vair, of six. This rule is not strictly observed, but in French
blazon if the rows are more than four it is usual to specify the number ;
thus VARROUX bears : de Vair de cinq traits. Menu-vair is still the blazon
of some families ; BANVILLE DE TRUTEMNE bears : de Menu-vair de six
tires; the Barons van HOUTHEM bore: de Menu-vair, au franc quartier
de gueules charge de trois maillets d'or. In British armory the foregoing
distinctions are unknown, and Vair is only of one size, that being at
the discretion of the artist.

When the Vair is so arranged that in two horizontal rows taken
together, either the points or the bases of two panes of the same tincture
are in apposition, the fur is known as COUNTER VAIR (Contre Vair) (see
Fig. 39, /). Another variation, but an infrequent one, is termed
VAIR IN PALE, known in German heraldry as Pfahlfeh (Vair appointe
or Vair en pal ; but if of other colours than the usual ones, Vaire en pal).
In this all panes of the same colour are arranged in vertical, or palar,
rows (Fig. 39, m). German heraldry apparently distinguishes between
this and Sturzp/ahlfeh, or reversed vair in pale. VAIR IN BEND (or in
bend-sinister) is occasionally met with in foreign coats; thus MIGNIA-
NELLI in Italy bears : Vaire dor et dazur en bande ; while Vaire en barre
(that is, in bend-sinister) dor et de sable is the coat of PlCHON of
Geneva. 1

" Vair en pointe " is a term applied by Nisbet to an arrangement
by which the azure shield pointing downwards has beneath it an argent
shield pointing downwards, and vice versa, by which method the result-
ing effect is as shown in Fig. 39, n. The German term for this is
IVogenfeh, or wave vair. Fig. 39, o, shows a purely German variety
Wechselfeh, or alternate vair; and Fig. 39, p, which is equivalent to the
English vaire" of four colours, is known in German armory as Buntfeh,
i.e. gay-coloured or checked vair.

Ordinary vair in German heraldry is known as Eisenhtit-feh, or iron
hat vair. On account of its similarity, when drawn, to the old iron
hat of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (see Fig. 42), this skin has
received the name of Eisenhutlein (little iron hat) from German heraldic
students, a name which later gave rise to many incorrect interpretations.
An old charter in the archives of the chapter-house of Lilienfield, in
Lower Austria, under the seal (Fig. 43) of one Chimrad Pellifex, 1329,
proves that at that time vair was so styled. The name of Pellifex (in



THE FIELD OF A SHIELD 83

German IVildwerker, a worker in skins, or furrier) is expressed in a
punning or canting form on the dexter side of the shield. This Conrad
the Furrier was Burgomaster of Vienna 1340-43.

A considerable number of British and foreign families bear Vair
only ; such are FERRERS and GRESLEY, above mentioned ; VARANO,
Dukes de CAMERINO ; VAIRE and VAIRIERE, in France ; VERET, in
Switzerland ; Gouvis, FRESNAY (Brittany) ; DE VERA in Spain ; LOHEAC
(Brittany) ; VARENCHON (Savoy) ; SOLDANIERI (Florence). Counter vair
is borne by LOFFREDO of Naples ; by BOUCHAGE, Du PLESSIS ANGERS,
and BROTIN, of France. HELLEMMES of Tournay uses : de Contre vair,
a lac otice de gueules brochante sur le tout.

Mr. Woodward, in his "Treatise on Heraldry," writes: "Two





FIG. 42.



FlG. 43. Seal of Chim-
rad Pellifex, 1329.



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
dargent et dazur 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 butterflies ; for example the coat of MONTI : Gules,
papelonne argent. DONZEL at Besangon 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 Guettles
papelonne a" 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 ARQUIN-
VILLIERS, or HARGENVILLTERS, in Picardy, of d'Hermine papelonne de



84 A COMPLETE GUIDE TO HERALDRY

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 a" Or seme de chausse-trapes
de gmules. 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 FIGLIAM-
BUCHi), 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 Nobility 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 Nobility 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 "
(t.e. old age) writes :

" So olde she was, that she ne went
A fote, but it were by potent."



THE FIELD OF A SHIELD 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 indi-
cate 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, 5. 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 tassy for potent- counter-potent, perhaps from the drawings in some
instances resembling cups; that is a possible meaning of tassa. 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 gene-
ralisation 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 in-
fraction 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 li 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 armesfausses 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 A COMPLETE GUIDE TO HERALDRY

Cardigan by escalade from the Earl of Clare and the Flemings in 1 164.
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 back-
ground. 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 in-
stance, 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



THE FIELD OF A SHIELD 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 con-
stantly 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 " land-
scape." 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 Massey 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 aug-
mentations 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 ship or action, and though the field of the augmenta-
tion 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 A COMPLETE GUIDE TO HERALDRY

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 con-
cealment of the date of nobility.

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 pro-
prietors, tradesmen, and artisans or workmen, as indicative of their
possessions, wares, or productions. These signs, originally simply out-
line pictures, were later introduced into heraldic soil, inasmuch as
bourgeois families raised to the nobility adopted their house signs as
heraldic charges upon their shields."

There are also many coats of arms which run : "In base, a repre-
sentation 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 passing
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