Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/505

 18G8.] Heraldry 411 HERALDRY. YAIR— YAIRE, Yary, or Verry, — accord- ing to Colombiere — is the second sort of Doubling or Far [the first being Ermine'] formerly used for the garments and linings of great men and knights of re- nown. According to the fancy of the herald, describing this Fur, the pieces, composing it, have been variously likened to diminutive escutch- eons, little glass pots, tiny bells, or the blossoms of the genus Campanula, suck as the bell-flower, the hare-bell, the blue- bell, &c, and all these comparisons are pretty exact. The lines of these pieces are so adjusted that, taking them as shieldlets, any two adjoining ones in a horizontal row fit closely together, chief to base, or head to foot, alternately, up- right and inverted. In tincturing Vair, the metal and the color are applied in that alternate man- ner, which gives the general effect of a draught, or checker-board. Thus, op- posed to the base points of any of the upright white escutcheonlets are the base points of as many inverted blue escutcheonlets. In other words, if all the white campanulas are upright, and arranged in diagonal rows, taken bend- ways, whether dexter or sinister, and disposed base point to dexter-chief-point, or sinister-chief-point, all the blue cam- panulas are inverted, thus completely filling all the spaces between the white ones. There is no need of telling the num- ber of figures of Vair, which are upon every rank, since it is a Fur and Doub- ling, where, the said pieces, being sewed on, they take the nature of figures that are semee, which have no certain num- ber over all, some hiding themselves in the upper chief line, the lower base, or either flank of the shield, and thus ex- hibiting but one-half their surface. On Chiefs, Crosses, Pales, Fesses, Bends, Chevrons, Saltires, &c, when they happen to be Vair, it is necessary to specify the number of ranks. Those of the original pieces, not white, being mostly of a gray or ash color, the nearest heraldic tincture to which would be azure, the heralds, settling the rules of "Armorie," determined that the pieces of Vair should be White and Blue, unless otherwise expressed. If any family bears the figures of Vair, with any other tinctures, the blazon must be : Vaire, Or and Gules — or whatever else — and, thus colored, the Bearing is called Vair Com- posed. The derivation of the word Vair ap- pears to be from the French varie, va- ried, or, in Latin, a variis coloribus, from the various colors of the several pieces sewed together, according to the honor and fancy of such as choose to bear it. The ancient drawings exhibit several sorts of Vair ; and it is to be observed, that there must be but four full rows, or ranks, of Vair in the escutcheon. If there are more or fewer ranges, they must be specified. Beffroy de Vaire has the largest figures, being made up of only three full rows. The Bejfroy is peculiar in having its first figure, in the dexter chief of the escutcheon, ahvays of metal ; and also in its figures, Coates sa3 r s, being made in the shape of a belt, [but this last must be a misprint for a bell ;] whereas, those of mere Vair are in the shape of a glass. This can only mean, that in Beffroy all the angles of the pieces are rounded, so that, in effect, the}' are outlined in a