Vair

Vair pattern (British type; French would have the top row white)

Vair is one of the furs 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.

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).

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.

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  Vair
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  Counter-vair
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  Vair in pale
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  Vair-en-pointe

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).

A fur of other colours than argent and azure is referred to as vairy (or vair�) of <METAL> and <COLOUR>.

Trivia

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.