Border (heraldry)

In a silver field is a scarlet border.

Border ( French bordure; brochure , English bordure , German bord ) in heraldry is an honorary heraldic figure in the form of a strip painted in tincture contrasting with the color of the main field and running along the entire edge of the shield , thus encircling it. The border can vary in width, giving when narrowing to half the normal width of the border - a narrow border ( fr. Filière ); up to 1/3 of the normal width of the border - the edge. If the narrowing of the border is due to the outer edge and it is separated from the edge by a gap, then the inner border and edging will be obtained, respectively ^[1] .

Like any other figure in the composition of the coat of arms, the border can be painted with one or several tinctures (often, depending on the type of field division). This also applies to the form : there are typesetting (compound), double, dotted, encumbered, wavy (wave-like), protruding and others. This is actively used in the Scottish cadence system , since the concept of a clan coat of arms does not exist in Scottish heraldry , and a noble coat of arms can belong to only one particular person, and his relatives wear their coat of arms with additional differences ^[2] .

Due to the frequent practice of using the border as a breeze, the rule of tinctures was not always respected in the coats of arms regarding it: for example, many members of the French royal house used a scarlet border on an azure field. It is extremely rare that it has the same color as the main field in which it lies; in this case, English heraldists use the term “ embordured ” ^[3] . It was a very unusual practice even during the dawn of heraldry, and today it is not used.