A Complete Guide to HeraldryFox-Davies, Arthur Charles
History
A Complete Guide to Heraldry
Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles
Heraldry -- Great Britain
A charge half the width of a bend is a bendlet (Fig. 80), and one half the
width of a bendlet is a cottise (Fig. 81), but a cottise cannot exist
alone, inasmuch as it has of itself neither direction nor position, but is
only found accompanying one of the ordinaries. The arms of Harley are an
example of a bend cottised.
Bendlets will very seldom be found either in addition to a bend, or
charged, but the arms of Vaile show both these peculiarities.
[Illustration: FIG. 80.--Bendlets.]
A bend will usually be found between two charges. Occasionally it will be
found between four, but more frequently between six. In none of these cases
is it necessary to specify the position of the subsidiary charges. It is
presumed that the bend separates them into even numbers, but their exact
position (beyond this) upon the shield is left to the judgment of the
artist, and their disposition is governed by the space left available by
the shape of the shield. A further presumption is permitted in the case of
a bend between _three_ objects, which are presumed to be two in chief and
one in base. But even in the case of three the position will be usually
found to be specifically stated, as would be the case with any other uneven
number.
[Illustration: FIG. 81.--Bend cottised.]
Charges on a bend are placed in the direction of the bend. In such cases it
is not necessary to specify that the charges are bendwise. When a charge or
charges occupy the position which a bend would, they are said to be placed
"in bend." This is not the same thing as a charge placed "bendwise" (or
bendways). In this case the charge itself is slanted into the angle at
which the bend crosses the shield, but the position of the charge upon the
shield is not governed thereby.
When a bend and chief occur together in the same arms, the chief will
usually surmount the bend, the latter issuing from the angle between the
base of the chief and the side of the shield. An instance to the contrary,
however, will be found in the arms of Fitz-Herbert of Swynnerton, in which
the bend is continued over the chief. This instance, however (as doubtless
all others of the kind), is due to the {114} use of the bend in early times
as a mark of difference. The coat of arms, therefore, had an earlier and
separate existence without the bend, which has been superimposed as a
difference upon a previously existing coat. The use of the bend as a
difference will be again referred to when considering more fully the marks
and methods of indicating cadency.
[Illustration: FIG. 82.--Bend sinister.]
A curious instance of the use of the sun's rays in bend will be found in
the arms of Warde-Aldam.[8]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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