Heraldry as art: An account of its development and practice, chiefly in England

by G. W. Eve

Fig. 79.

Somewhat similar to semée is what is known as guttée or gouttee (Fig. 79), a means of covering a field or other object by means of a kind of semée of drops, which have different names according to their tinctures. Thus when they are gold they are gouttés d’or; when argent, gouttés d’eau; when gules, gouttés de sang; azure, gouttés de larmes; sable they are gouttés de poix; and gouttés d’olive are vert.

It is quite permissible to blazon them by their tincture; thus “arg. gouttée de sang,” would be equally correctly written, arg. guttée gules.

The direction of the ordinaries affords another excellent means of placing charges; thus, objects in a horizontal line across the middle of the shield are in fess, when at the top they are in chief, and so forth.

Similarly, charges one above the other are blazoned in pale. Here it should be noted that in pale and in fess do not mean occupying the space of a pale or of a fess, but merely that they are disposed in the indicated direction. Thus the lions of England are in pale, but should, of course, be drawn right across their field, and in a similar manner charges in fess extend from chief to base when their character admits of the extension.

In some instances a number of charges are placed on the field between others, as: three roses in bend between two roundles; but the result can rarely be made satisfactory as design, such a coat seeming to need the steadying effect of the lines of an ordinary.

Charges that are ranged round the field, as in the enamelled shield of William de Valence at Westminster, p. 176, are in orle; if the number of martlets were specified, the blazon would be so many martlets in orle; but if the number were indefinite, the term would be an orle of martlets.

Fig. 80.—Arms of the Grocers Company of London. Cartoon for mural decoration. Geo. W. Eve.

When a fess or a chevron is between three charges the latter naturally fall into the position of two in chief and one in base, and that is the most usual number and arrangement. Instances of greater numbers so disposed are rare among ancient examples, for in designing them the pointed shield seems to have been kept always in view with the notable exception of Berkeley, Gu. a chevron ermine between ten crosses pattée Ar; but these adapt themselves perfectly to the shield and chevron, being balanced by the large number above, as also do the cloves of the Grocers Company that are similarly arranged. Fig. 80 shows a rendering of the last-mentioned arms as designed to accompany work of the eighteenth century.