Joe and James, would both reject someone claiming a dinstintive difference between three shields of the same two tinctures, one bendy of four and another bendy of six and another a field with three bars?
Jeffrey.
Personally, yes. I can see them as (s)lightly differenced, possibly enough for close blood relations, but not really distinct enough to be more than one coat.
Interestingly, there is a practical issue based on this very point amongst the Camerons. I believe it might even have gone to the Court of Session in the 19th century though I wouldn’t swear to that.
James
Barron is terrificly good, full of a clever, learned bias.
Colors in painted glass often fade. Even in true stained glass, lighting conditions can lead one to mistake blue for white, for example.
Yeesh! Would those be gold lions on a white field?
Sure looks like it.
I wouldn’t assume so. Painted glass fades, and even genuine stained glass can look washed out in the right lighting conditions. (Notice how pink the roses are in the shield to the right—almost certainly originally red.)
I don’t disagree with Joe’s preference for Azure a bend Gules or whatever—I just said "think of it as tierced" or whatever as a suggestion for someone who takes the tincture rule as a commandment rather than a useful convention, to get past it.
But the "rule" still serves a purpose, so long as one focuses on "why" and not just blindly on the "rule" per se. To paraphrase the Good Book (and with apologies to our brethren of the cloth) the law is to serve man, not man the law; but still we should seek to fulfill the law, not to abolish it.
good movie that one 
Last week I watched the Italian Film Habemus Papam, about a papal election with complications as the Cardinal elected Pope has cold feet and runs away from the Vatican. There are some references to Heraldry as the Papal elect is to choose his Arms as Pope. Supposedly not the one He has had as a Cardinal. Some sketches are shown, but no close-ups so they are rather blurry. But at least they felt it important enough to include albeit very briefly.
Bumping this thread again, I subjected my wife to watching MacGyver tonight in an attempt to relive my childhood briefly. I watched the episode where MacGyver goes back in time to Camelot to save his relatives (side note: it was the episode where his name was revealed—Spoiler—it’s Angus). Well, it’s full of heraldry and I was able to catch a few of them. There is a lot more in the show, but it’s hard to see. There is one notable design that is Vert with a purple design on it. Lots of color on color, tenne, and a lot of Fleur-de-Lis designs.
I rendered up a few. If you want to check them out, it’s MacGyver, Season 7, "Good Knight MacGyver" Parts 1 and 2. (It’s on Netflix)
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b146/Snydercrew/macgyver-01.jpg
I watched "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" recently, and noticed Maggie Smith several times utters the line: "You girls are my vocation. If I were to receive a proposal of marriage tomorrow from the Lord Lyon, king of arms, I would decline it."
Poor Lyon.
Benjamin Thornton;100132 wrote:
I watched "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" recently, and noticed Maggie Smith several times utters the line: "You girls are my vocation. If I were to receive a proposal of marriage tomorrow from the Lord Lyon, king of arms, I would decline it."
I wonder if the girls would have been so impressed if they’d realized that Lyon Sir Francis Grant was 70 years old.
http://www.father-brown.de/pics/anmerkungen/ct/Sir_Francis_Grant,_Lord_Lyon_King_of_Arms.jpg
