The coat of arms is mainly composed of two elements: colours and figures. If you think about it, the choice of a color is important: it affects 50% of the result. First of all, let’s remember that in heraldry there are six traditional tinctures divided into two main groups, metals and colours. The Argent (silver) and the Or (gold) are metals, while the colours are four: Gules (red), Sable (black), Azure (blue) and Vert (green). In the second group we can add a fifth, the purpure (purple), even if some important French heraldists might turn up their noses.

These heraldic tinctures are absolute: the tones do not matter. Is it blue or light blue? It doesn’t matter, it’s azure. We can complicate our discussion a little by adding some staines, or stainand colours, non-standard tinctures: murrey, sanguine and tenné. Murrey is mulberry-coloured; sanguine is a brownish red, or blood-red colour; tenné is an orange-tawny colour. They are only known to occur in post-medieval heraldry and the French look at this matter as an exotic fact, especially English. Dear Anglo-Saxon friends, as an Italian, when I have to recognize a tint, perhaps 800 years old and oxidised, I must confess that I sympathize with the French heraldists: six tinctures are enough.