Lozenge (heraldry)

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File:Lozenge demo.svg
Escutcheon showing Argent, a lozenge gules

The lozenge in heraldry is a diamond-shaped rhombus charge (an object that can be placed on the field of the shield), usually somewhat narrower than it is tall. It is to be distinguished in modern heraldry from the fusil, which is like the lozenge but narrower, though the distinction has not always been as fine and is not always observed even today. A mascle is a voided lozenge—that is, a lozenge with a lozenge-shaped hole in the middle—and the rarer rustre is a lozenge containing a circular hole in the centre. A lozenge throughout has "four corners touching the border of the escutcheon".[1] A field covered in a pattern of lozenges is described as lozengy; similar fields of mascles are masculy, and fusils, fusily (see Variation of the field). In civic heraldry, a lozenge sable is often used in coal-mining communities to represent a lump of coal.

File:All Saints, Kirby Cane, Norfolk - Ledger slab - geograph.org.uk - 1500709.jpg
Ledger slab with lozenge arms of Dorothy Neville (1605–1672), Kirby Cane, Norfolk.

A lozenge-shaped escutcheon is used to depict heraldry for a female (in continental Europe especially an unmarried woman), but is also sometimes used as a shape for mural monuments in churches which commemorate females, as a shield was considered inappropriate for women who did not generally participate in combat; for the same reason, clergymen were also sometimes given oval-shaped arms.[2][3] Funerary hatchments are generally shown within lozenge-shaped frames, for both male and female deceased.

Types

  • Lozenge: a diamond-shaped rhombus, usually somewhat narrower than it is tall
  • Lozenge throughout[4] or grand Lozenge:[4] a lozenge "with four corners touching the borders of the escutcheon".[5]
  • Fusil: a thin lozenge; very much taller than it is wide.
  • Mascle: a voided lozenge (i.e. with a largish lozenge-shaped hole)
  • Rustre (very rare): a lozenge pierced (i.e. with a smallish round hole)

Lozengy

The blason Lozengy is a form of variation of the field or of another charge (for example a chevron lozengy) which consists of lozenges semée, or sown like seeds (Latin: semen, a seed), or strewn across the field, but in an organised contiguous pattern. The arms granted to the Canadian John Francis Cappucci bring an example of lozengy voided, the same as "lozengy" but with a smaller lozenge-shaped hole cut out of each segment.[6]

Examples

Lozenges on flags

Lozenge

[[Flag of Brazil.svg|center|border|150x75px|alt=|Flag of Brazil]]
[[Flag of East Lothian.svg|center|border|150x75px|alt=|Flag of East Lothian, Scotland, United Kingdom]]
[[Infantry battalion flag of the United States Navy.svg|center|border|150x75px|alt=|Infantry battalion flag of the United States Navy]]
[[Flag of Arkansas.svg|center|border|150x75px|alt=|Flag of the State of Arkansas, USA]]
[[Flag of Delaware.svg|center|border|150x75px|alt=|Flag of the State of Delaware, USA]]
[[Flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.svg|center|border|150x75px|alt=|Flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines]]
[[Flag of Shiwa Iwate.svg|center|border|150x75px|alt=|Flag of Shiwa, Iwate, Japan]]
Flag of Shiwa, Iwate, Japan 
[[Soledar flag.svg|center|border|150x75px|alt=|Flag of Soledar, Bakhmut Raion, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine]]

Lozenge throughout

[[Flag of Saba.svg|center|border|150x75px|alt=|Flag of Saba, Netherlands]]
[[Bandeira do Império do Brasil com nó e cores corretos.svg|center|border|150x75px|alt=|Flag of the Empire of Brazil (1853–1889)]]
[[Naval Jack of Free France.svg|center|border|150x75px|alt=|Naval Jack of Free France]]
[[Bandera de la Guerra a Muerte.svg|center|border|150x75px|alt=|Flag of the Second Republic of Venezuela]]

Mascle

[[Flag of the University of St Andrews.svg|center|border|150x75px|alt=|Flag of the University of St Andrews]]
[[Schifffahrtswimpel Austria.svg|center|border|150x75px|alt=|River Police Pennant, Austrian Armed Forces]]
[[Flag of the Red Crystal.svg|center|border|150x75px|alt=|Flag of the Red Crystal (Third Protocol of the Geneva Conventions)]]
Flag of the Red Crystal (Third Protocol of the Geneva Conventions

Rustré

[[Flagge Behlendorf.png|center|border|150x75px|alt=|Flag of Behlendorf, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany]]
[[Flagge Duvensee.png|center|border|150x75px|alt=|Flag of Duvensee, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany]]

Lozengy

[[Flag of Bavaria (lozengy).svg|center|border|150x75px|alt=|Flag of Bavaria (variant)]]
[[Lozenge flag of Monaco.svg|center|border|150x75px|alt=|Civil ensign and national flag (variant) of Monaco]]

Nowy lozengy

[[Flag of Birobidzhan.svg|center|border|150x75px|alt=|Flag of Birobidzhan, Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Russia]]
[[Flag of New Milford, Connecticut.svg|center|border|150x75px|alt=|Flag of New Milford, Connecticut, USA]]
[[Forest Finns flag.svg|center|border|150x75px|alt=|Flag of the Forest Finns]]
Flag of the Forest Finns 

See also

References

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  3. For example, the lozenge-shaped monument to Arabella Morgan (1741-1828) in St Andrew's Church, High Ham, Somerset, see image File:St Andrew's Church, High Ham2.jpg
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Further reading

  • Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles (1909). A Complete Guide to Heraldry. New York: Dodge Pub. Co.(and the more recent editions) LCCN 09-23803
  • Canadian Heraldic Authority, Public Register, with many official versions of modern coats of arms, searchable online archive.gg.ca
  • South African Bureau of Heraldry, data on registered heraldic representations (part of National Archives of South Africa); searchable online (but no illustration), national.archsrch.gov.za
  • Civic Heraldry of England and Wales, fully searchable with illustrations, civicheraldry.co.uk
  • Heraldry Society of Scotland, members' arms, fully searchable with illustrations of bearings, heraldry-scotland.com
  • Heraldry Society (England), members' arms, with illustrations of bearings, searchable online The Heraldry Society
  • Royal Heraldry Society of Canada, Members' Roll of Arms, with illustrations of bearings, searchable online Royal Heraldry Society of Canada
  • Brooke-Little, J P, Norroy and Ulster King of Arms, An heraldic alphabet (new and revised edition), Robson Books, London, 1985 (first edition 1975); very few illustrations
  • Greaves, Kevin, A Canadian Heraldic Primer, Heraldry Society of Canada, Ottawa, 2000, illustrations
  • Moncreiffe of Easter Moncreiffe, Iain, Kintyre Pursuivant of Arms, and Pottinger, Don, Herald Painter Extraordinary to the Court of the Lord Lyon King of Arms Simple Heraldry, Thomas Nelson and Sons, London and Edinburgh, 1953; illustrated
  • Friar, Stephen (ed) A New Dictionary of Heraldry Alphabooks, Sherborne, 1987; with very few illustration of attitudes