The Observer's book of Heraldry by Charles MacKinnon of Dunakin

) A particular type of tiercing, resembling a Y in shape (division lines per bend and bend sinister coming down from the chief, meeting at the fess point, and continuing down per pale), is called per pall (also per pairle). Clackmannan county (now Clackmannanshire) has Or a saltire gules a chief tierced in pale vert, argent, vert.

but Scottish heraldry does use 'tierced in pale' (e.g.

Shields may also be divided into three parts: this is called tierced, as in tierced per pale, azure, argent and gules (though perhaps in English heraldry this is rarely if ever done, and the foregoing shield would be blazoned - as the pale is supposed to be one-third of the width of the field and is always so depicted under these circumstances - per pale azure and gules, a pale argent. Papal coat of arms of Benedict XVI is Gules chapé ployé Or or 'tierced in mantle' A chief is considered a charge in English heraldry and is considered layered atop the field. The earliest such record in the Scottish Public Register is before 1677, 'parted per chief azure and gules three skenes argent hefted and pomelled Or Surmounted of as many Woolf-heads couped of the third.' and a bordure per chief is shown in the arms of Roy, Canada. Neither can a field (nor any charge) be divided per chief, for similar reasons though both Canadian and Scottish Public Registers have official records of fields or bordures divided 'per chief'. in letters patent and extracts of matriculation.Ī field cannot be divided per bordure (as, if this did exist, it would be indistinguishable from the bordure), but a bordure can be divided or counter-changed. (In the above 'left' and 'right' are from the viewer's perspective, whereas the heraldic terms 'sinister' and 'dexter' are from the perspective of the person carrying the shield.) Nowadays, however, the 'party' is often omitted, even in 'official' blazons, e.g.

party per pall (divided into three parts in a Y shape).

party per chevron (after the manner of a chevron).

party per cross or quarterly (divided into four quarters).

party per saltire (diagonally both ways).

party per bend sinister (diagonally from upper right to lower left).

party per bend (diagonally from upper left to lower right).

parted (or party) per fess (halved horizontally).

The Observer's book of Heraldry by Charles MacKinnon of Dunakin