FURTHER NOTES ON TINCTURES

Counter-Changed
If a charge or group of charges is placed over two sections of a parted field, then it may have the same tinctures as the fields but in reverse. In this case the charge is "counter-changed".

Proper
When a common charge is tinctured "proper", it appears in it's natural colour. This is mainly used when the correct colour for something is not a common tincture. For example, orange is not a common Mediaeval colour. (Tenne was not used until later in the Renaisance period.) If a person wanted to display a fox in their coat of arms they would might blazon it "a fox orange proper" or "a fox proper". In this case, orange is not a heraldic tincture, but simply an explanation of what colour the fox should be coloured. A lion the other hand can naturally be yellow, so it does not need a "proper" tincture. It would simply be blazoned "a lion Or". Some charges could easily be blazoned a single tincture and, although they would not appear completely natural, would be relatively so. Consider the example given in the previous section on colours. "An oak tree vert" would indicate that the entire tree (trunk included) was green - relatively natural looking. Whereas, "an oak try proper" would have green leaves and a brown trunk - completely natural looking. In the Mediaeval period, the use of "proper" was rare. Remember that from a distance, the details are less distinct and the original purpose of the coat of arms was to distinguish people in battle.

fox proper	oak tree eradicated vert	oak tree eradicated proper / oak tree eradicated vert, trunked and fructed brunatre	per pale sable and argent, a roundel counter-changed

Diagram - Examples of proper and counter-changed charges and their blazons


Fimbriation
Fimbriation is when the edge of a charge has an outline. The outline must obey the rule of tincture. It can not clash with either the object inside or the field outside. Fimbriation was (and is) often used to put a metal charge on a metal field, or coloured charge on a coloured field. One should bare in mind that the outline would have needed to be very thick so that it could be seen at a distance. As well, at a distance the outline may render fine details of the charge difficult to distinguish. For example, a lion dormant may be indistinguishable form a lion passant. In fact, it may even be difficult to distinguish a lion from other quadrupeds. 

Voiding
Voiding when only the outline of a charge is shown. For example a mascle is simply a voided lozenge, and an annulet is a voided roundel. In these cases, we can see the outline or outer edge of the charge but not the charge itself. Instead, in the middle we see the colour of the field beneath. As with fimbriation, voiding could potentially cause details to be become more obscure at a distance and was more often reserved for simple shaped charges such as geometric shapes.

The following blazons demonstrate the issue of clarity which would have been a practical issue, especially during the early mediaeval period. As one can see, some of these blazons are much clearer than others.

purpure, a chevron voided Or	purpure, a crown voided Or	azure, a fess vert fimbriated Or	azure, a fish vert fimbriated Or
clear	relatively clear	clear	relatively clear
argent, a bear rampant voided sable	argent, a bear rampant voided sable	argent, a bear rampant fimbriated sable	sable, a bear rampant fimbriated argent
(a thin outline) the proverbial polar bear in a snowstorm.	(a thick outline) The charge is barely identifiable.	At a distance the charge would be difficult to see.	The charge is "bearly" noticeable.
argent, a bear rampant fimbriated gules	argent, a bear rampant sable	gules, a bear rampant argent
The thicker line and colour contrast helps distinguish this one a bit more	clear	clear

Diagram - Voiding and fimbriation

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