Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/332

 272 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [October, SANGUINE,— MURREY, — by armorial engravers depicted by two sets of diagonal lines, one set from the dexter chief point to the sinister base, and the other from the sinister chief to the dexter base point ; and in Tricking by the letter M, — vari- ously explained " dark red" and " blood red ;" and which, in the absence of any absolute description by the au- thorities, we surmise to have been, either crimson-lake, or carmine, or at least a red inclining towards purple. It was in heraldic Latin called color sanguineus. The Spanish heralds did not use it. In French, Murrey is defined by Rouge fonce, dark or deep red ; in German, by dunkel Braun, dark brown, and dunkel Roth, dark red ; and in Italian by di color rosso oscuro, of a dusky or dark red color. Leigh says : " Sanguine is a princely color, being, indeed, of the colors apper- taining, in ancient time, to the Prince of Wales. It is a color of great esteem and very stately, and used in some robes of the knights of Bath." Some heralds will not allow Sanguine and Tenney to be used in heraldry ; but it is certain they have been used. I do not find, that Colombiere takes any notice of this color, whence I con- clude it is little, or not at all used by the French or Spanish heralds. Syl- vanus Morgan does not speak of it ; nor does Spelman allow of it, although he says, it represents in heaven, the Drag- on's Tail ; and, among precious stones, the sardonyx. — Coates. Kent remarks : " Murrey, but in bla- zon sanguine, i. e., Blood red, is the other stain and [staining] color and the last we have to treat of. The significa- tion of it in arms is, That the Bearer was not over hasty to Battle, yet over- came. " D. B. Hay, in his excellent " Nomen- clature of Colors," [12mo. p. 72, with 240 contrasted colors, tints and hues, Edinburgh and London, W. Blackwood & Son, 1845,] treats succinctly of this Heraldic lore, saying that it originally only acknowledged white, black, and the three primaries, red, yellow, and blue ; that green was added in the reign of Richard II. and purple about the mid- dle of the sixteenth century ; and gives the armorial nomenclature, as already explained in detail, as " all but uniform all over Europe." Following Nisbet, he derives Gules from the Latin gula, the throat, or the Arabian word gules, meaning a red nose. This latter, rather compotatorial derivation is, not unlikely, an old-time printer's devil's substitute for a red rose ; at any rate, good proof- readino- would have caught the Oulistan or Rose Garden of the Persian poet Saadi. Hay adds, " at a more recent period, other two colors were intro- duced, called tenney and sanguine. These correspond to orange and russet, the latter being described as a duskish red." Say rather to orange and crim- son. True russet is only a warm brown, often exhibited perfectly by oiled or varnished walnut wood ; and the bright- est russet we know, Indian red, is a very poor blood color. Hay proceeds, " The use of these two colors [Tenney and Sanguine] has been almost exclu- sively confined to the Germans and the Dutch." Where shall these two poor colors rest ? Note. — In addition to the Simple Tinctures, as above, thare are the Heraldic Furs and the Compo- site Tinctures, along with those formed in the lines of the Ordinaries, such as Barry, Paly, Bendy, Pily, Gyronny, etc., and that allied class formed by the French method of tierciny — all of which will be considered in their due order. First, the Furs ; and the others, as they can most readily and surely be mastered by the reader ; regular progression and clearness being an object in our course.— C. J. L.