Blazoning is the methodical description of a bearing. In the first place, the shield is described according to its tinctures, figures, and partitions. The inferior parts of an escutcheon are then blazoned—the helm, with its insignia, which are trumpet, wings, and plumes, men and animals, or their members; then the wreath and its tinctures; after which the coronet cap, &c.; finally the supporters, the mantle, the device, and other secondary things. Such terms for the color must be used as are agreeable to the station and quality of the bearer. All persons below the degree of noble must have their coats blazoned by colors and metals; noble men by precious stones; and kings and princes by planets.
In emblazoning shields of arms, metals, colors, and furs are used to depict the device, the technical terms of which are these;—of metals, gold, called or, and silver, argent, only are employed;—of colors, red, called gules, blue, azure, black, sable, green, vert, and purple, purpure;—and of furs, principally the skin of the little animal called ermine, and a combination of grey and white squirrel skins, called vair.
In blazoning arms it is an established rule with heralds, that animals are always to be interpreted in the best sense, that is, according to their most noble and generous qualities, that the most honor may redound to the bearers. Thus the fox, being reputed witty and given to filching for his prey, if this be the charge of an escutcheon, we are to conceive the quality represented to be his wit and cunning, and not his theft.
All savage beasts are to be figured in their fiercest action: as a lion erected, his mouth wide open, his claws extended; and thus formed he is said to be rampant. A leopard or wolf is to be portrayed going as it were pedetentim, which form of action suits their natural disposition, and is called passant. The gentler kinds are to be set forth in their noblest and most advantageous action, as a horse running or vaulting, a greyhound coursing, a deer tripping, a lamb going with smooth and easy pace.
Every animal is to be represented as moving or looking to the right side of the shield; and it is a general rule, that the right foot be placed foremost, because the right side is reckoned the beginning of motion. The upper part is nobler than the lower, and things that are constrained either to look up or down, ought rather to be designed looking upwards. We observe however that notwithstanding such precepts of Guillim and other masters of armory, there are lions passant, couchant, dormant, as well as rampant, and most animals in arms look down and not up. Birds are esteemed a more honorable bearing than fish, and wild and ravenous birds than tame ones. When their bills and feet are of a different color from the rest, they are said to be membered. Birds of prey are more properly said to be armed. In the blazoning of fowls much exercised in flight, if the wings be not displayed, they are said to be borne close, for example, he beareth an eagle, a hawk, or a swallow, close. Fish are borne different ways, upright, embowed, extended, endorsed, surmounted of each other, fretted, triangled. Those borne feeding should be termed devouring. Those borne directly upright are termed Hauriant, and those borne traverse the escutcheon, naiant.
To historify, in heraldry, is to explain the history of a coat of arms, its origin, and the changes it has undergone. If the herald is to explain a bearing historically, he must show that this figure is the proper emblem of the family or country. He derives, for instance, from historical sources, the proof that the double-headed eagle of the Roman king was first introduced in the beginning of the fourteenth century, under Albert I., and that previously, from the time of Otho II., the royal eagle had but one head; that the three leopards in the English arms were first derived in 1127, under Henry I., from the Norman house.—The marshalling of arms consists in the preparation of new escutcheons. In this matter, the herald either follows the orders of a sovereign, or he invents the idea, and makes the plan of the escutcheon according to his own judgment, or he composes a new escutcheon from several coats of arms.
DIFFERENT KINDS OF ARMS.
In heraldic science, arms are distinguished by different names, to denote the causes of their being borne, such as arms of dominion, of pretension, of concession, of community, of patronage, of family, of alliance, of succession, and of assumption. Those of dominion and sovereignty are those which emperors, kings, and sovereign states constantly bear, being, as it were, annexed to the territories, kingdoms, and provinces they possess. Thus there are the arms of England, of France, of the United States, &c. Arms of pretension are those of kingdoms, provinces, or territories, to which a prince or lord has some claim, and which he adds to his own, although such kingdoms or territories are possessed by another prince or lord. Arms of concession, or augmentation of honor, are entire arms, as the fortress of Gibraltar on the escutcheon of Lord Heathfield. Arms of community belong to bishoprics, cities, companies, &c. Arms of patronage, to governors of provinces, lords of manors, &c. Arms of family are the property of individuals; and it is criminal in any persons not of the family to assume them. Arms of alliance show the union of families and individuals. Arms of succession are taken up, by those who inherit certain estates, manors, &c., either by will, entail, or donation, and which they impale or quarter with their own. This multiplies the titles of some families from necessity, and not from ostentation. Arms of assumption, or assumptive arms, are taken up by the caprice or fancy of persons who assume them without a legal title. They are also such as a man of his proper right may assume, with the approbation of his sovereign and of the king of arms.
PARTS OF A COAT OF ARMS.
The parts of arms are the escutcheon, the tinctures, charges, and ornaments. Heralds distinguish nine different points in escutcheons, in order to determine exactly the positions of the bearing they are charged with, as in the figure.