Tinctures, just a fancy word for colors

Tinctures: Tincture is the limited palette of colours and patterns used in heraldry. The need to define, depict, and correctly blazon the various tinctures is one of the most important aspects of heraldic art and design. While artistic choices of shades may vary, the blazon uses the following terms.

The colours and patterns of the heraldic palette are divided into three groups, usually known as metals, colours, and furs.

Metals

The metals are or and argent, representing gold and silver respectively, although in practice they are often depicted as yellow and white.

Or comes from the Latin aurum, “gold”. At the artist’s discretion, it may be depicted using either yellow or metallic gold; “yellow” has no separate existence in heraldry and is never used to represent any tincture other than or.

Argent is similarly derived from the Latin argentum, “silver.” Although sometimes depicted as metallic silver or faint grey, it is more often represented by white, partly because of the tendency for silver paint to oxidize and darken over time, and partly because of the pleasing effect of white against a contrasting color.

Colours

Five colors have been recognized since the earliest days of heraldry. These are: gules, or red; sable, or black; azure, or blue; vert, or green; and purpure, or purple.

Gules is of uncertain derivation; outside of the heraldic context, the modern French word refers to the mouth of an animal.

Sable is named for a type of marten, known for its dark, luxuriant fur.

Azure comes from the Arabic lāzaward, and from the Persian lāžavard, both referring to the blue mineral lapis lazuli, used to produce blue pigments.

Vert is from the Latin viridis, “green”.

Purpure is from Latin purpura, in turn from Greek porphyra, the dye known as Tyrian purple. This expensive dye, known from antiquity, produced a much redder purple than the modern heraldic color.

Stains

There are three additional colors which have also been recognized by heraldic authorities.

Sanguine from the Latin sanguineus, “blood red”, one of the so-called “stains” in British armory, is a dark blood red. It was long shunned in the belief that it represented some dishonor on the part of the bearer.

Murrey, from the Greek morum, “mulberry”, it has found some use in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Tenné or tenny or tawny, from Latin tannare, “to tan”, is the third of the so-called “stains”. It is most often depicted as orange, but sometimes as tawny yellow or brown. In earlier times it was occasionally used in continental heraldry, but in England it was largely confined to livery.

Rare Metals

While nontraditional, sometimes the following are used as Metals.

Copper is the bright metal of the element copper.

Buff is a light brownish yellow, ochreous colour, typical of buff leather. Buff is a mixture of yellow ochre and white. It is utilized as a metal by the US Army Institute of Heraldry.

Rare Colors

Bleu celeste (“sky blue”) is a rarely occurring and non-standard tincture in heraldry. This tincture is sometimes also called ciel or simply celeste. It is depicted in a lighter shade than the range of shades of the more traditional tincture azure, which is the standard blue used in heraldry.

Brunâtre (“brownish”) is utilized mostly in French and German blazons.

Buff is recognized as a tincture by the Canadian Heraldic Authority.

Cendrée is a tincture, the grey of ashes (French cendres), iron, and stone walls.

Ochre ( from Ancient Greek ὤχρα (ṓkhra), from ὠχρός (ōkhrós) ‘pale’), iron ochre, or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in color from yellow to deep orange or brown.