Division of The Field - Common Divisions of The Field

Common Divisions of The Field

Common partitions of the field are:

• parted (or party) per fess (halved horizontally)
• party per pale (halved vertically)
• party per bend (diagonally from upper left to lower right)
• party per bend sinister (diagonally from upper right to lower left)
• party per saltire (diagonally both ways)
• party per cross or quarterly (divided into four quarters)
• party per chevron (after the manner of a chevron)
• party per pall (divided into three parts in a Y shape)

Nowadays, however, the 'party' is often omitted, even in 'official' blazons, e.g. in letters patent and extracts of matriculation.

A field cannot be divided per bordure (as, if this did exist, it would be indistinguishable from the bordure); though a bordure can. 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'. 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.

Although it is alleged that per chevron enhanced (with the division occurring higher than it normally would) is called mantled in English, this is a term of rare application. When the term rompu is applied to a division of the field, the result will take a number of different forms depending on the manner of division. The arms of Lois Hole show Per chevron rompu Or and Vert, the centre section heightened of two points. (Rompu can also sometimes be applied to "common charges".) A field pily, as in the arms of Baron Marks of Broughton, is similar to a field per fess dancetty, except that the teeth are much more exaggerated.

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. but Scottish heraldry does use 'tierced in pale' (e.g. Clackmannan county (now Clackmannanshire) has Or; a saltire gules; a chief tierced in pale vert, argent, vert ...) 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). The arms of Pope Benedict XVI is "tierced in mantle" - as described in Vatican information pages, but the usual term in, for example South African heraldry, is chapé ployé (with arched lines, with straigt lines: chapé (mantled)), which may be blazoned with three tinctures or just two - e.g. Okakarara Technical Institute: Gules, chapé Azure, on the partition lines respectively a bend and a bend sinister enhanced, in base a demi-cogwheel, Or, with a fountain issuant. Shields may also be divided into three parts by a combination of two methods of division, such as party per fess, in chief per pale. Another example is in the arms of Clive Cheesman: per pale and per pall. This is to be distinguished from the essentially unique partition in the arms of the 2nd Weather Group of the United States Air Force, which is "Dexter per chevron ployé and sinister per fess enhanced."

A shield may also be party per chevron reversed (inverted), which is like party per chevron except upside down. A section formed by two (straight) lines drawn from the corners of the chief to the point in base is called chaussé (shod), with arched or bent (French: ployé) lines it is called chaussé ployé.