Fig. 35.—The Tinctures.
Fig. 36.
The tinctures are usually contracted into arg., gu., az., vt., purp., and sa. for convenience.
It will probably be found that errors of memory are most likely to occur from confusing the direction of the lines which signify blue and red respectively; this may be avoided to some extent by connecting the letters H.B., which distinguish what is perhaps the most used grade of lead-pencil, with the fact to be remembered: Horizontal = Blue. Also the fact that objects on the horizon are blue may assist the memory.
The furs are as follows: Ermine, it is hardly necessary to say, is white with black spots (Fig. 36). Ermines is black with white spots, and is probably a purely heraldic inversion of ermine. Erminois is ermine with a gold ground instead of white, and Pean, which is inverted erminois, has a black ground spotted with gold. The actual ermine being composed of many small skins sewn together, the black-tipped tails formed a regular powdering of spots. These, however, have from the earliest heraldic times been represented by conventional forms of immense variety, which usually consist of a divided central portion with the addition of three spots above, the latter being sometimes embellished with diverging lines. The conventional version of ermine was even used in costume, being painted on the material which was used by those to whom the wearing of real ermine was forbidden by sumptuary law. It will be observed that the body of the spot has become turned upside down in its transition from the form of the natural tail.
Fig. 37.