Rules Of Heraldic Colors

[Birger]

To make it easier to understand the all of heraldic colors I've compiled this simple thing...

Some good links:

Edit: Heraldic Dictionary
Edit: Heraldic Colors

 

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The "meanings" assigned to these colors are at best pure fantasy. There never has been and probably never shall be a universal set of "meanings" to heraldic colors. Likewise, there are many English heralds who would vehemently argue that Sanguine and Murray are absolutely distinct, both conceptually and visually.

Finally, while the message gives color swatches, it should be noted that heraldic representation has never been color-swatch based. "Azure" for example, can refer to everything from "baby blue" to the very dark and deep blue found in the US flag. Attempts to pin down heraldic tinctures to a "correct" value at the Pantone level of precision are purely a 20th-century and phenomenon. Any of the flags or arms depicted in EU2 would come from a far larger palette.

 

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Originally posted by Dogface
Finally, while the message gives color swatches, it should be noted that heraldic representation has never been color-swatch based. "Azure" for example, can refer to everything from "baby blue" to the very dark and deep blue found in the US flag.

An even better example is purpure - this was more often represented as a deep red than anything remotely purplish. Thus the (almost certainly incorrect) purple lions that keep cropping up for Castille.

 

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Originally posted by Korath
An even better example is purpure - this was more often represented as a deep red than anything remotely purplish. Thus the (almost certainly incorrect) purple lions that keep cropping up for Castille.

Ah, yes, the proper "Purple" of "born to the purple".

http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/flag-dye.html

is a nice essay on the vagaries of color over the centuries.

What I've seen leads me to believe that the "royal Purple" and the "purpure" of heraldry were closer to what we would call "crimson" in the modern day.

 

[Birger]

Originally posted by Dogface
The "meanings" assigned to these colors are at best pure fantasy. There never has been and probably never shall be a universal set of "meanings" to heraldic colors. Likewise, there are many English heralds who would vehemently argue that Sanguine and Murray are absolutely distinct, both conceptually and visually.

Finally, while the message gives color swatches, it should be noted that heraldic representation has never been color-swatch based. "Azure" for example, can refer to everything from "baby blue" to the very dark and deep blue found in the US flag. Attempts to pin down heraldic tinctures to a "correct" value at the Pantone level of precision are purely a 20th-century and phenomenon. Any of the flags or arms depicted in EU2 would come from a far larger palette.

I only used one source for this, I should have done some additional research before I posted it.
I'll change it asap.

Well, I can't use every color in this example, it obvious that the thread would be too long.
Like I said in the first post, I only made to give an example of what the color terms means.

Not everyone know what "azure" means...

 

[Angelos]

I am no sure if they have an e-adress,and i would like to know if there is one,but a great source is Los archivos Heraldicos de Madrid.I have come across some of their pieces and they are quite awesome!If anybody knows the adress,please post it.

 

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Originally posted by Birger Jarl

Well, I can't use every color in this example, it obvious that the thread would be too long.
Like I said in the first post, I only made to give an example of what the color terms means.

Not everyone know what "azure" means...

Here is how I've come to think of the heraldic colors over the years.

Color and heraldry
Heraldry is an art and a science (to lift a distinction from Fox-Davies). Unlike most of the rest of the world (for heralds are indeed a perverse lot), the art of heraldry is almost always far more precise than is the science of heraldry. The science of heraldry consists of the basic definitions of the colors, the charges, the locations on the shield, and rules of assembly for these and other components. One should think of these as the "generic" rules.

The art of heraldry, on the other hand, governs how a specific coat of arms is to be depicted, within the rules of the science.

Thus, we should think of the colors of heraldry as ranges of color, not specific and fixed hues. For example: The blue of the US flag, the UK flag, the French flag, the Russian flag, and the Czech flag are all heraldically "azure". However, the color of "sky blue" would not be considered "azure".

Why such an imprecise system? For the following reasons:

1: The Pantone Matching System didn't exist when heraldry was invented.

2: Colors were themselves far more fluidly defined in the Middle Ages--a lot like the fluidity of spelling and even the spelling of one man's name.

3: The system was NOT invented before the coat of arms was invented. This is something that a lot of us forget (or never knew). Thousands of coats of arms existed and were in use before the rules of heraldry were explicitly invented. Heralds essentially had to play catch-up, writing a set of standards that could include everything that already existed. In a very centralized country like England, it took until the late 1600s for the entire thing to be locked up by their King of Arms (something that modern enthusiasts for the English system like to pretend didn't happen--they often falsely claim that the English system existed as far back as the Angevins). In several Eastern European countries, the system was never uniformly imposed and its modern use is actually a post-Communism innovation introduced from the outside.


Thus, heraldry is a loose system, not a logical system. It is much more like a natural language than a programming language.

 

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Re-try at the heraldic colors

Here's how I try to describe the heraldic colors:

Azure: A blue, always darker than sky blue, no visible greenish hints.

Gules: Red, from a slightly orange red to a deep red. Very little to no blue in this. Usually fairly brilliant but can be slightly subdued. Never a pink.

Sable: Black, sometimes can be as light as a dark "charcoal", but this is uncommon.

Vert: Green, includes "kelly", "emerald", "grass", and "lime". Yellow hints should be minimal. Must not approach "turquoise".

Argent: White, usually a "cool" white.

Or: Yellow, but not a "lemon" yellow, can be somewhat orange in tone, especially for contrast reasons in the individual depiction.



Less legitimate but ancient colors:

Purpure: Anciently, a crimson to maroon. Modernly, a synonym for violet, can be reddish, almost never bluish.

Sanguine: Blood red. "Sanguine" is from the Latin for "blood". This should be fresh blood color, not old blood color.

Tenne: Has been used for orange, rust, brown, etc.

Proper: The "natural coloration" of the item in question.

Modern colors:

Sky blue: Used in some Canadian coats of arms.
Brown: Ditto
Everything else under the sun: You name it, it's been done.

 

[Hamilcar]

Originally posted by Korath
An even better example is purpure - this was more often represented as a deep red than anything remotely purplish. Thus the (almost certainly incorrect) purple lions that keep cropping up for Castille.

Purpur (in German) means a dark red, iirc.

 

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uh, Dogface... isn't your "re-try" of the colors more of a chart that tells me what a certain color is supposed to look like? Cause well, it reminds me of a box of Crayola crayons and doesn't tell me the meaning of what the colors mean.

Then again i'm looking at the meanings... and as you say that they are fantasy, I beg to differ. Dispite that fact that they aren't universal, many countries use some colors because of how'd they like to show themselves to the world. The colors would have different meanings depending on the culture is what i'd guess. I'd have to say that the ones Birger posted are fairly correct according to a European stand point.

Of course i also could be wrong, but this is what i recall reading in the past.