The lozenge in
heraldry is a diamond-shaped
rhombuscharge (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.
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.[2]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: a lozenge "with four corners touching the borders of the escutcheon".
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)
3 lozenges—Gules, three lozenges argent— Guillaume de Haer (according to Gelre)
5 rustres—
Argent; on a
saltire gules five rustres argent, in chief a lion rampant of the second (gules)—Dalrymple of Woodhead, Scotland
"Or, a lozenge sable"
Fusils
Mascles
A rustre
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.[3]
Examples
Lozengy or and azure (effectively a field azure semée with lozenges or)
Lozengy azure and or (effectively a field or semée with lozenges azure)
A variant
Flag of Bavaria, an array of 21 or more lozenges
bendwise of white and blue (blazoned as a field "fusilly in bend" or sometimes "bendy lozengy").
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
Royal Heraldry Society of Canada, Members' Roll of Arms, with illustrations of bearings, searchable online
http://www.heraldry.ca/
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