A Complete Guide to HeraldryFox-Davies, Arthur Charles
History
A Complete Guide to Heraldry
Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles
Heraldry -- Great Britain
The early manner of depicting vair is still occasionally met with in
foreign heraldry, where it is blazoned as Vair ondé or Vair ancien. The
family of MARGENS in Spain bears: Vair ondé, on a bend gules three griffins
or; and TARRAGONE of Spain: Vair ondé, or and gules. German heraldry seems
to distinguish between _wolkenfeh_ (cloud vair) and _wogenfeh_ (wave vair;
see Fig. 39, _n_). The former is equivalent to vair ancient, the latter to
vair en point.
The verbal blazon of vair nearly always commences with the metal, but in
the arrangement of the panes there is a difference between French and
English usage. In the former the white panes are generally (and one thinks
more correctly) represented as forming the first, or upper, line; in
British heraldry the reverse is more usually the case. It is usual to
depict the white panes of ordinary vair with white rather than silver,
though the use of the latter cannot be said to be incorrect, there being
precedents in favour of that form. When an ordinary is of vair or vairy,
the rows of vair may be depicted either horizontally or following the
direction of the ordinary. There are accepted precedents for both methods.
Vair is always blue and white, but the same subdivision of the field is
frequently found in other colours; and when this is the case, it is termed
vairy of such and such colours. When it is vairy, it is usually of a colour
and metal, as in the case of Ferrers, Earls of Derby, above referred to;
though a fur is sometimes found to take the place of one or other, as in
the arms of Gresley, which are: "Vairé gules and ermine." I know of no
instance where vairé is found of either two metals or of two colours, nor
at the same time do I know of any rule against such a combination. Probably
it will be time enough to discuss the contingency when an instance comes to
light. Gerard Leigh mentions vair of three or more tinctures, but instances
are very rare. Parker, in his "Glossary," refers to the coat of Roger
Holthouse, which he blazons: "Vairy argent, azure, gules, and or, en
point."
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