A Complete Guide to HeraldryFox-Davies, Arthur Charles
History
A Complete Guide to Heraldry
Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles
Heraldry -- Great Britain
The line _raguly_ has been the subject of much discussion. It, and the two
which follow, viz. potenté and dovetailed, are all comparatively modern
introductions. It would be interesting if some enthusiast would go
carefully through the ancient Rolls of Arms and find the earliest
occurrences of these terms. My own impression is that they would all be
found to be inventions of the mediæval writers on heraldry. Raguly is the
same as embattled, with the crenellations put upon the slant. Some writers
say they should slant one way, others give them slanting the reverse. In a
pale or a bend the teeth must point upwards; but in a fess I should
hesitate to say whether it were more correct for them to point to the
dexter or to the sinister, and I am inclined to consider that either is
perfectly correct. At any rate, whilst they are usually drawn inclined to
the dexter, in Woodward and Burnett they are to the sinister, and Guillim
gives them turned to the dexter, saying, "This form of line I never yet met
with in use as a partition, though frequently in composing of ordinaries
referring them like to the trunks of trees with the branches lopped off,
and that (as I take it) it was intended to represent." Modern heraldry
supplies an instance which in the days of Mr. Guillim, of course, did not
exist to refer to. This instance occurs in the arms of the late Lord
Leighton, which were: "Quarterly per fesse raguly or and gules, in the
second and {95} third quarters a wyvern of the first." It is curious that
Guillim, even in the edition of 1724, does not mention any of the remaining
terms. Dovetailed in modern armory is even yet but seldom made use of,
though I can quote two instances of coats of arms in which it is to be
found, namely, the arms of Kirk, which are: "Gules, a chevron dovetailed
ermine, on a chief argent, three dragons' heads couped of the field;" and
Ambrose: "Azure, two lions passant in pale argent, on a chief dovetailed of
the last, a fleur-de-lis between two annulets of the first." Other
instances of dovetailed used as a line of partition will be found in the
case of the arms of Farmer, which are: "Per chevron dovetailed gules and
argent, in chief two lions' heads erased of the last, and in base a
salamander in flames proper;" and in the arms of Fenton namely: "Per pale
argent and sable, a cross dovetailed, in the first and fourth quarters a
fleur-de-lis, and in the second and third a trefoil slipped all
countercharged." There are, of course, many others. The term _potenté_, as
will be seen from a reference to Fig. 47, is used to indicate a line which
follows the form of the division lines in the fur potent. As one of the
partition lines potenté is very rare.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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