https://cunnan.lochac.sca.org/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=71.30.253.205Cunnan - User contributions [en]2026-06-15T22:30:11ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.39.3https://cunnan.lochac.sca.org/index.php?title=Vair&diff=28760Vair2006-09-06T03:55:15Z<p>71.30.253.205: </p>
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<div>One of the [[fur]]s used as a [[tincture]] ([[colour]]) in [[heraldry]]. It's a hard-to-describe regular pattern of blue (''[[azure]]'') and white (''[[argent]]''). The pattern is supposed to resemble [[squirrel]] pelts sewn together in alternating colors. It is found in a variety of colours, and appears in different arrangements, each with its own name.<br />
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[[image:vair.png|Vair pattern (British type; French would have the top row white)]]<br />
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It goes back, as does [[ermine]], to a fur highly prized by the potentates of the [[Middle Ages]]. The word ''vair'' is derived from the Middle English forms ''veir'' and ''vair�'', meaning ''variegated fur'' (from the French vair, itself from the [[Latin]] ''varius'', variegated).<br />
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The squirrel in question was apparently blue-grey on the back and white underneath, and was much used for the lining of cloaks. It was sewn together in alternating cup-shaped pieces of back and stomach fur, resulting in a pattern of grey-blue and grey-white which, when simplified in heraldic drawing and painting, became blue and white in alternating pieces. The species involved has never been accurately identified.<br />
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<gallery><br />
Image:Field_vair.png|<center>Vair<br />
Image:Field_countervair.png|<center>Counter-vair<br />
Image:Field_vairinpale.png|<center>Vair in pale<br />
Image:Field_vairenpointe.png|<center>Vair-en-pointe<br />
</gallery><br />
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In the oldest records vair is represented by means of straight horizontal lines alternating with vertical wavy or [[nebuly]] lines (sometimes blazoned as ''vair ond�'' or ''vair ancien'').<br />
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A fur of other colours than argent and azure is referred to as '''vairy''' (or '''vair�''') of &lt;metal&gt; and &lt;colour&gt;<br />
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==Trivia==<br />
In the Cinderella fairy tale, the slippers were of glass, but some 19th century French writers thought it was a mistake and there were supposed to be made of vair ("verre", ''glass'', is a paronym). Fact is slippers are ''really'' made of glass, not of vair. Disney has it true.<br />
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==External link==<br />
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[[Category:Device heraldry]]</div>71.30.253.205