Variation of the field
Encyclopedia
In heraldry
, variations of the field are any of a number of ways that a field
(or a charge
) may be covered with a pattern, rather than a flat tincture
or a simple division of the field.
are frequently employed to vary the field.
Any of these patterns may be counterchanged by the addition of a division line; for example, barry argent and azure, counterchanged per fess or checquy Or and gules, counterchanged per chevron.
.) The arms of Eyfelsberg zum Wehr provide a perhaps unique example of barry of four different tinctures that do not repeat. With ten or more pieces, the field is described as barruly.
A field having the appearance of a number of narrow piles throughout issuing from the dexter of sinister flanks is barry pily.
Composed of pallets, the field is paly; of bendlets, bendy; in a bend-sinister-wise fashion (of skarpes, the diminutive in England
of the bend sinister), bendy sinister; of chevronels, chevronny.
In modern practice the number of pieces is nearly always even.
A shield of thirteen vertical stripes, alternating argent and gules, would not be paly of thirteen, argent and gules, but argent, six pallets gules. (This is the lower portion of the shield on the Great Seal of the United States of America. The incorrect blazon is usually used anyway, to preserve the reference to the thirteen original colonies, and this form is occasionally imitated allusively.)
One unusual design is described in part as bendy of three though, as each third is again divided, the effect is of a six-part division.
If no number of pieces is specified, it may be left up to the heraldic artist (but is still an even number).
An instance of a fess... paly Sable, Argent, [Bleu] Celeste and Or occurs in the arms of the 158th Quartermaster Battalion of the United States Army
, although this is atypical terminology and it could be argued that the fess should be blazoned as "per pale, in dexter per pale Sable and Argent, and in sinister per pale Bleu Celeste and Or".
In the modern arms of the Count of Schwarzburg
, the quarters are divided by a cross bendy of three tinctures.
When the shield is divided by lines both palewise and bendwise, with the pieces coloured alternately like a chess board, this is paly-bendy; if the diagonal lines are reversed, paly-bendy sinister; if horizontal rather than vertical lines are used, barry-bendy; and mutatis mutandis, barry-bendy sinister.
When the shield is divided by both bendwise and bendwise-sinister lines, creating a field of lozenges (again coloured like a chessboard), the result is lozengy. (But generally lozengy is depicted with the lozenges narrower in width than would be bendy bendy-sinister, which at least in theory would be a different field.) Lozengy in the field must be distinguished from an ordinary such as a bend which is blazoned of one tincture and called "lozengy"; this means that the ordinary is entirely composed of lozenges, touching at their obtuse corners. (The arms of Bavaria
have occasionally been blazoned and emblazoned as lozengy fesswise; that is, with the narrower axis of the component lozenges vertically rather than horizontally oriented. Similarly, Landkreis Erding adopted arms with a chief bendy lozengy, and the arms of Crofts of Dalton in Lancashire
, England
are Bendy lozengy argent and sable.) In paly bendy the bendwise lines are supposed to be less acute than in plain lozengy.)
Part of the field of the arms of the 544th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissaince Group of the United States Air Force is lozengy in perspective.
A field fusilly can be very difficult to distinguish from a field lozengy (in early days no clear distinction was made between lozenges and fusils); the fusil is supposed to be proportionately narrower than the lozenge, and the bendwise and bendwise-sinister lines are therefore more steeply sloped.
A field which seems to be composed of a number of triangular pieces is barry bendy and bendy sinister.
Square fretty is similarly composed of barrulets and pallets.
Trellisé appears in the arms of Luc-Normand Tellier, where it consists of "bendlets, bendlets sinister and barrulets" interlaced.
[These are not, strictly speaking, variations of the field, since they are depicted as being on the field rather than in it.]
A field pappellony shows an overlay of a pattern like the wings of a butterfly, though this is accounted a fur. (The number of rows of pappellony are sometimes defined, such as the seven of the Aleberici Family of Bologna.) The shield of Chateaubriand shows an instance of the pappellony of the ancient arms being transformed into seme-de-lys in the new coat. The Italian term squamoso and the French écaillé, meaning 'scaly', are also similar.
The town of Vilani, in Latvia, has part of its field honeycombed.
When divided by palewise and fesswise lines into a chequered pattern, the field is chequy. Croatia
is widely known by its chequy coat-of-arms
. The arms of "Bleichröder, banker to Bismarck," show chequy fimbriated (the chequers being divided by thin lines). The arms of the 85th Air Division (Defense) of the United States Air Force
show "a checky grid" on part of the field, though this is to be distinguished from "chequy". The number of chequers is generally indeterminate, though the fess in the arms of Robert Stewart, Lord of Lorn, they are blazoned as being "of four tracts" (in four horizontal rows); and in arms of Toledo
, fifteen chequers are specified. The number of vertical rows can also be specified. When a bend or bend sinister, or one of their diminutives, is chequy, the chequers follow the direction of the bend unless otherwise specified. James Parker cites the French term equipolle to mean chequy of nine, though mentions that this is identical to a cross quarter-pierced (strangely, this is blazoned as "a Latin square
chequy of nine" in the arms of the Statistical Society of Canada). He also gives the arms of Prospect as an unusual example of chequy, "Chequy in perspective argent and sable"; this must be distinguished from cubes as a charge. Chequy is not "fanciable"; that is, the lines of chequy cannot be modified by lines of partition
.
are an unusual example of gyronny meeting in the nombril point (a point on the shield midway between the fess point and the base point). Gyronny can be modified by (most of) the lines of partition (there would be exceptions such as dancetty and angled).
Gyronny of six pieces may be blazoned mal-gironné (badly gyronny), as in the canting arms of Maugiron.
shapes; e.g. paly nebuly of six, Or and sable. One very common use of this is barry wavy azure and argent; this is often used to represent either water
or a body of water in general, or the sea in particular, though there are other if less commonly used methods of representing the sea, including in a more naturalistic manner.
When the field (or a charge) is described as semé or semy of a sub-ordinary or other charge
, it is depicted as being strewn over with many copies of that charge. Semé is regarded as part of the field.
To avoid confusion with a simple use of a large number of the same charge (e.g. Azure, fifteen fleurs-de-lis Or), the charges semé are ideally depicted cut off at the edge of the field, though in olden depictions this is often not the case. An example of this can be found in the Coat of arms of Denmark
, which now features three lions among nine hearts, but older versions depicted three leopards on a semy of hearts, the number of which varied and was not fixed at nine until 1819. There are also some exceptions to this however, as with some bordures, which depict a discrete number (often eight) of the charge. One such device as that of Jesus College, Cambridge
, which despite a blazon of "seme" is invariably depicted with the "crowns Golde" on its bordure as indistinguishable from being charged with either eight or ten crowns. A large number (usually eight) of any one charge arranged as if upon an invisible bordure is said to be in orle, an orle being a diminutive band within the bordure.
_shield.svg.png)
Most small charges can be depicted as semé, e.g. semé of roses, semé of estoiles, and so forth. In English heraldry, several types of small charges have special terms to refer to their state as semé:
When a field semé is of a metal, the charges strewn on it must be of a colour, and vice versa. The charges semé do not affect the tinctures available for the major charges: they follow the rule of tincture just as they would if the field were not semé.
The arms of Hockin are "Per fesse wavy gules and azure; [in chief] a lion passant gardant or, beneath the feet a musket lying horizontally proper; [the base] semy of fleurs-de-lis confusedly dispersed of the third," alluding to an incident in which Thomas Hockin caused the French to scatter.
The 1995-2002 arms of Rogaška Slatina, Slovenia show Vert, semee of Disks Or, decreasing in size from base to chief.
The heraldic furs of the ermine family appear to be semé of the "ermine dots," but they are not counted as such; but fields semy of ermine spots are, as in the coat of Wrexham County Borough Council.
is entirely covered by an interlocking stylised pattern looking like a wheat field.
or cow. There is at least one example that is more elaborately blazoned.
, Cundinamarca
, Colombia
.
Diapering
(covering areas of flat colour with a tracery design when depicting arms) is not considered a variation of the field; it is not specified in blazon, being a decision of the individual artist. A coat depicted with diapering is considered the same as a coat drawn from the same blazon but depicted without diapering.
Heraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
, variations of the field are any of a number of ways that a field
Field (heraldry)
In heraldry, the background of the shield is called the field. The field is usually composed of one or more tinctures or furs. The field may be divided or may consist of a variegated pattern....
(or a charge
Charge (heraldry)
In heraldry, a charge is any emblem or device occupying the field of an escutcheon . This may be a geometric design or a symbolic representation of a person, animal, plant, object or other device...
) may be covered with a pattern, rather than a flat tincture
Tincture (heraldry)
In heraldry, tinctures are the colours used to emblazon a coat of arms. These can be divided into several categories including light tinctures called metals, dark tinctures called colours, nonstandard colours called stains, furs, and "proper". A charge tinctured proper is coloured as it would be...
or a simple division of the field.
Patterning with ordinaries and subordinaries
The diminutives of the ordinariesOrdinary (heraldry)
In heraldry, an ordinary is a simple geometrical figure, bounded by straight lines and running from side to side or top to bottom of the shield. There are also some geometric charges known as subordinaries, which have been given lesser status by some heraldic writers, though most have been in use...
are frequently employed to vary the field.
Any of these patterns may be counterchanged by the addition of a division line; for example, barry argent and azure, counterchanged per fess or checquy Or and gules, counterchanged per chevron.
Barry, Paly, Bendy
When the field is patterned with an even number of horizontal (fesswise) stripes, this is described as barry e.g. of six or eight, usually of a colour and metal specified, e.g. barry of six argent and gules (this implies that the chiefmost piece is argent). More rarely, a barry field can be of two colours or two metals. (The arms of the Kingdom of Hawai'i show a very unusual example of barry of three different tinctures, and there are even more exceptional examples of barry of a single tincture, as in the arms of Kempten on the Zurich roll,http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/ZurichRoll/ or barry of five as in the arms of JodhpurJodhpur
Jodhpur , is the second largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is located west from the state capital, Jaipur and from the city of Ajmer. It was formerly the seat of a princely state of the same name, the capital of the kingdom known as Marwar...
.) The arms of Eyfelsberg zum Wehr provide a perhaps unique example of barry of four different tinctures that do not repeat. With ten or more pieces, the field is described as barruly.
A field having the appearance of a number of narrow piles throughout issuing from the dexter of sinister flanks is barry pily.
Composed of pallets, the field is paly; of bendlets, bendy; in a bend-sinister-wise fashion (of skarpes, the diminutive in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
of the bend sinister), bendy sinister; of chevronels, chevronny.
In modern practice the number of pieces is nearly always even.
A shield of thirteen vertical stripes, alternating argent and gules, would not be paly of thirteen, argent and gules, but argent, six pallets gules. (This is the lower portion of the shield on the Great Seal of the United States of America. The incorrect blazon is usually used anyway, to preserve the reference to the thirteen original colonies, and this form is occasionally imitated allusively.)
One unusual design is described in part as bendy of three though, as each third is again divided, the effect is of a six-part division.
If no number of pieces is specified, it may be left up to the heraldic artist (but is still an even number).
An instance of a fess... paly Sable, Argent, [Bleu] Celeste and Or occurs in the arms of the 158th Quartermaster Battalion of the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
, although this is atypical terminology and it could be argued that the fess should be blazoned as "per pale, in dexter per pale Sable and Argent, and in sinister per pale Bleu Celeste and Or".
In the modern arms of the Count of Schwarzburg
House of Schwarzburg
The House of Schwarzburg was one of the oldest noble families of Thuringia, until its extinction in 1971 with the death of Prince Friedrich Günther...
, the quarters are divided by a cross bendy of three tinctures.
When the shield is divided by lines both palewise and bendwise, with the pieces coloured alternately like a chess board, this is paly-bendy; if the diagonal lines are reversed, paly-bendy sinister; if horizontal rather than vertical lines are used, barry-bendy; and mutatis mutandis, barry-bendy sinister.
Lozengy
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
have occasionally been blazoned and emblazoned as lozengy fesswise; that is, with the narrower axis of the component lozenges vertically rather than horizontally oriented. Similarly, Landkreis Erding adopted arms with a chief bendy lozengy, and the arms of Crofts of Dalton in Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
are Bendy lozengy argent and sable.) In paly bendy the bendwise lines are supposed to be less acute than in plain lozengy.)
Part of the field of the arms of the 544th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissaince Group of the United States Air Force is lozengy in perspective.
A field fusilly can be very difficult to distinguish from a field lozengy (in early days no clear distinction was made between lozenges and fusils); the fusil is supposed to be proportionately narrower than the lozenge, and the bendwise and bendwise-sinister lines are therefore more steeply sloped.
A field which seems to be composed of a number of triangular pieces is barry bendy and bendy sinister.
Fretty and other treatments
A field masculy is composed entirely of mascles; that is, lozenges pierced with a lozenge shape – this creates a solid fretwork surface and is to be distinguished from a field fretty, composed of bendlets and bendlets-sinister or "scarps", interleaved over one another to give the impression of a trellis. Although almost invariably the bendlets and scarpes are of the same tincture, there is an example in which they are of two different metals. (It is rare for the number of pieces of the fretty to be specified, though this is sometimes done in French blazon.) (The bendlets and bendlets sinister are very rarely other than straight, as in the arms of David Robert Wooten, in which they are raguly.) Objects can be placed in the position of the bendlets and bendlets sinister and described as "fretty of," as in the arms of the Muine Bheag Town Commissioners: "Party per fess or fretty of blackthorn branches leaves proper and ermine, a fess wavy azure".Square fretty is similarly composed of barrulets and pallets.
Trellisé appears in the arms of Luc-Normand Tellier, where it consists of "bendlets, bendlets sinister and barrulets" interlaced.
[These are not, strictly speaking, variations of the field, since they are depicted as being on the field rather than in it.]
A field pappellony shows an overlay of a pattern like the wings of a butterfly, though this is accounted a fur. (The number of rows of pappellony are sometimes defined, such as the seven of the Aleberici Family of Bologna.) The shield of Chateaubriand shows an instance of the pappellony of the ancient arms being transformed into seme-de-lys in the new coat. The Italian term squamoso and the French écaillé, meaning 'scaly', are also similar.
The town of Vilani, in Latvia, has part of its field honeycombed.
Chequy
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
is widely known by its chequy coat-of-arms
Coat of arms of Croatia
The coat of arms of Croatia consists of one main shield and five smaller shields which form a crown over the main shield. The main coat of arms is a checkerboard that consists of 13 red and 12 silver fields. It's commonly known as šahovnica or grb...
. The arms of "Bleichröder, banker to Bismarck," show chequy fimbriated (the chequers being divided by thin lines). The arms of the 85th Air Division (Defense) of the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
show "a checky grid" on part of the field, though this is to be distinguished from "chequy". The number of chequers is generally indeterminate, though the fess in the arms of Robert Stewart, Lord of Lorn, they are blazoned as being "of four tracts" (in four horizontal rows); and in arms of Toledo
Toledo, Spain
Toledo's Alcázar became renowned in the 19th and 20th centuries as a military academy. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 its garrison was famously besieged by Republican forces.-Economy:...
, fifteen chequers are specified. The number of vertical rows can also be specified. When a bend or bend sinister, or one of their diminutives, is chequy, the chequers follow the direction of the bend unless otherwise specified. James Parker cites the French term equipolle to mean chequy of nine, though mentions that this is identical to a cross quarter-pierced (strangely, this is blazoned as "a Latin square
Latin square
In combinatorics and in experimental design, a Latin square is an n × n array filled with n different symbols, each occurring exactly once in each row and exactly once in each column...
chequy of nine" in the arms of the Statistical Society of Canada). He also gives the arms of Prospect as an unusual example of chequy, "Chequy in perspective argent and sable"; this must be distinguished from cubes as a charge. Chequy is not "fanciable"; that is, the lines of chequy cannot be modified by lines of partition
Line (heraldry)
The lines of partition used to divide and vary fields and charges in heraldry are by default straight, but may have many different shapes. Care must sometimes be taken to distinguish these types of lines from the extremely unusual and non-traditional use of lines as charges, and to distinguish...
.
Gyronny
A shield that is divided quarterly and per saltire, forming eight triangular pieces, is gyronny; the first tincture in the blazon is that of the triangle in dexter chief. (There are apparently very rare examples in which gyronny is of more than two tinctures such as the arms of Origo of Milan: Gyronny, sable, argent, vert, sable, argent, vert, sable, vert.) Gyronny can also have a different number of pieces than eight; for example, Stoker, Lord Mayor of London, had a field gyronny of six; there may be gyronny of ten or twelve, and the arms of Clackson provide an example of gyronny of sixteen. (There cannot be gyronny of four, as that would be either per saltire or quarterly, or three, as that would be tierced in pairle or tierced in pairle reversed.) While the gyrons of gyronny almost invariably meet in the fess point (the exact centre of the shield) the arms of the University of ZululandUniversity of Zululand
The University of Zululand has been designated to serve as the only comprehensive tertiary educational institution north of the uThukela River in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Its new status is in accordance with South Africa's National Plan for Higher Education aimed at eradicating inequity and...
are an unusual example of gyronny meeting in the nombril point (a point on the shield midway between the fess point and the base point). Gyronny can be modified by (most of) the lines of partition (there would be exceptions such as dancetty and angled).
Gyronny of six pieces may be blazoned mal-gironné (badly gyronny), as in the canting arms of Maugiron.
Variations of Lines
Any of the division lines composing the variations of the field above may be blazoned with most of the different lineLine (heraldry)
The lines of partition used to divide and vary fields and charges in heraldry are by default straight, but may have many different shapes. Care must sometimes be taken to distinguish these types of lines from the extremely unusual and non-traditional use of lines as charges, and to distinguish...
shapes; e.g. paly nebuly of six, Or and sable. One very common use of this is barry wavy azure and argent; this is often used to represent either water
Water
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
or a body of water in general, or the sea in particular, though there are other if less commonly used methods of representing the sea, including in a more naturalistic manner.
Semé
Charge (heraldry)
In heraldry, a charge is any emblem or device occupying the field of an escutcheon . This may be a geometric design or a symbolic representation of a person, animal, plant, object or other device...
, it is depicted as being strewn over with many copies of that charge. Semé is regarded as part of the field.
To avoid confusion with a simple use of a large number of the same charge (e.g. Azure, fifteen fleurs-de-lis Or), the charges semé are ideally depicted cut off at the edge of the field, though in olden depictions this is often not the case. An example of this can be found in the Coat of arms of Denmark
Coat of arms of Denmark
The royal coat of arms is more complex. The shield is quartered by a silver cross fimbriated in red, derived from the Danish flag, the Dannebrog. The first and fourth quarters represent Denmark by three crowned lions passant accompanied by nine hearts; the second quarter contains two lions passant...
, which now features three lions among nine hearts, but older versions depicted three leopards on a semy of hearts, the number of which varied and was not fixed at nine until 1819. There are also some exceptions to this however, as with some bordures, which depict a discrete number (often eight) of the charge. One such device as that of Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The College was founded in 1496 on the site of a Benedictine nunnery by John Alcock, then Bishop of Ely...
, which despite a blazon of "seme" is invariably depicted with the "crowns Golde" on its bordure as indistinguishable from being charged with either eight or ten crowns. A large number (usually eight) of any one charge arranged as if upon an invisible bordure is said to be in orle, an orle being a diminutive band within the bordure.
- semé of cross-crosslets: crusily
- semé of fleurs-de-lis: semé-de-lis
- semé of bezants: bezanté
- semé of plates: platé
- semé of billets: billeté
- semé of annulets: annulletty
- semé of sparks: étincellé;
- semé of guttae: gouttée.
- semé of torteaux (roundels gules): tortelly
When a field semé is of a metal, the charges strewn on it must be of a colour, and vice versa. The charges semé do not affect the tinctures available for the major charges: they follow the rule of tincture just as they would if the field were not semé.
The arms of Hockin are "Per fesse wavy gules and azure; [in chief] a lion passant gardant or, beneath the feet a musket lying horizontally proper; [the base] semy of fleurs-de-lis confusedly dispersed of the third," alluding to an incident in which Thomas Hockin caused the French to scatter.
The 1995-2002 arms of Rogaška Slatina, Slovenia show Vert, semee of Disks Or, decreasing in size from base to chief.
The heraldic furs of the ermine family appear to be semé of the "ermine dots," but they are not counted as such; but fields semy of ermine spots are, as in the coat of Wrexham County Borough Council.
Tapissé of wheat
A field tapissé of wheatWheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
is entirely covered by an interlocking stylised pattern looking like a wheat field.
Masoned
A field or ordinary masoned shows a pattern like that of a brick wall. This can be "proper" or of a named tincture. The tincture refers to the cracks between the stones, the stones being transparent: a wall of red bricks with white mortar is thus gules masoned argent.Pied at random
Used in some South-African coats, this means patterned like the markings of a bullBull
Bull usually refers to an uncastrated adult male bovine.Bull may also refer to:-Entertainment:* Bull , an original show on the TNT Network* "Bull" , an episode of television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation...
or cow. There is at least one example that is more elaborately blazoned.
Folds
The arms of the Special Troops Battalion of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division of the United States Army has the unique field Per pale Sable and Gules with stylized folds Sanguine, the sinister half of the field symbolizing a warrior's cape.Honeycomb
An example of this is in the arms of FusagasugáFusagasugá
Fusagasugá is a town and municipality in the department of Cundinamarca, in central Colombia. It is located some forty miles from the capital, Bogotá. With 122,000 inhabitants, Fusagasugá is one of the largest municipalities in the department. It was founded in 1562 by Spanish priests.It borders...
, Cundinamarca
Cundinamarca Department
- Origin of the name :The name of Cundinamarca comes from Kundur marqa, an indigenous expression, probably derived from Quechua. Meaning "Condor's Nest", it was used in pre-Columbian times by the natives of the Magdalena Valley to refer to the nearby highlands....
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
.
Diapering
Diapering
Diaper is any of a wide range of decorative patterns used in a variety of works of art, such as stained glass, heraldic shields, architecture, silverwork etc. Its chief use is in the enlivening of plain surfaces.-Etymology:...
(covering areas of flat colour with a tracery design when depicting arms) is not considered a variation of the field; it is not specified in blazon, being a decision of the individual artist. A coat depicted with diapering is considered the same as a coat drawn from the same blazon but depicted without diapering.