
	Michael’s Heraldry Tutorial
	Heraldic Colors
Introduction Basics Divisions Ordinaries Colors Rule of Tincture Charges 1 Charges 2 Glossary Related Books About This Web Site	Click on a little color shield, then click on the big shield. (Potent and counter-potent are not correct yet.) There are four classifications of colors in Heraldry. The three kinds of tinctures are colors, metals, furs, and proper. Colors are what you might expect, and each has a name taken mostly from Middle French: “Gules”—Red “Vert”—Green “Azure”—Blue “Purpure”—Purple “Braun”—Brown “Sable”—Black Most people can distinguish between millions of shades of color, and the English language is filled with a spectrum color words. But heraldry has six colors and that's it. (There's even argument over whether Braun is a proper heraldic color. It was used in Germany but not in England or France.) Metals are a separate category. Again, in addition to the names we know them by, each has a Middle French name: “Or”—Gold or Yellow “Argent”—Silver or White Furs are the third category. Their names come directly from Medieval heralds. “Ermine”— “Counter-Ermine”— Proper, the final category, isn't really a color at all, but in the grammar of Heraldry it is. “Proper”—The color that the thing has in real life, if it's not easily rendered in the standard colors of heraldry. For instance, in German heraldry a piece of wood might have the color Braun, but in English heraldry it would be called Proper and be painted brown. I waited until now to present the heraldic colors for two reasons. First, I wanted to simplify the discussions of ordinaries and tinctures of the field. Second, now that we have ordinaries and tinctures we can progress to the next chapter, the Rule of Tincture.
	Next Lesson: Rule of Tincture
	Copyright © 1999, 2001 by Michael Roeder. All Rights reserved.