Fountain (heraldry)

Fountain or syke is in the terminology of heraldry a roundel depicted as a roundel barry wavy argent and azure, that is, containing alternating horizontal wavy bands of silver (or white) and blue. Traditionally, there are six bands: three of each color.

A fountain is depicted like this in heraldry. A roundel barry wavy Argent and Azure.
This charge, seen in continental heraldry (above, used in a Portuguese communal coat of arms), must be called a naturalistic fountain in English blazons

Because the fountain consists equally of parts in a metal and a colour, its use is not limited by the rule of tincture as are the other roundels. The fountain may be made in any heraldic tinctures, but unless otherwise stated, it is silver/white and blue.

If the blazon of a coat of arms contains the word fountain, it is not a natural, water-gushing fountain which should be depicted but a roundel like this.

Syke, an alternative name for fountain, is a Northern English dialect word for "well"[1] and features on the canting arms of the Sykes family.[2]

Examples
gollark: Rednet is a protocol running on top of modem.
gollark: No they're not.
gollark: Rednet is useless overhead.
gollark: Yes, and run over modem/skynet. But not rednet.
gollark: The actual security guarantees are basically both "fine if nobody prods it".

References
  1. Fearn, Jacqueline (1980). Discovering Heraldry. Shire. p. 25.
  2. "Sykes Family Crest and History". House of Names. Retrieved 8 February 2014.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.