Ermine (/ˈɜːrmɪn/) inheraldry is afur, a type oftincture, consisting of a white background with a pattern of black shapes representing the winter coat of thestoat (a species of weasel with white fur and a black-tipped tail). The linings of medieval coronation cloaks and some other garments, usually reserved for use by high-ranking peers and royalty, were made by sewing many ermine furs together to produce a luxurious white fur with patterns of hanging black-tipped tails. Due largely to the association of the ermine fur with the linings of coronation cloaks, crowns and peerage caps, the heraldic tincture of ermine was usually reserved to similar applications in heraldry (i.e., the linings ofcrowns andchapeaux and of theroyal canopy).[1] In heraldry it has become especially associated with theDuchy of Brittany and Breton heraldry.
Theermine spot, the conventional heraldic representation of the tail, has had a wide variety of shapes over the centuries; its most usual representation has three tufts at the end (bottom), converges to a point at the root (top), and is attached by three studs. When "ermine" is specified as the tincture of the field (or occasionally of a charge), the spots are part of the tincture itself, rather than asemé or pattern of charges. Theermine spot (so specified), however, may also be used singly as a mobilecharge, or as a mark ofdistinction signifying the absence of a blood relationship.[2]
On abend ermine, the tails follow the line of the bend. In the arms of William John Uncles,[3] the field ermine is cut into bendlike strips by thethree bendlets azure, so the ermine tails are (unusually) depicted bendwise.
Though ermine andvair were the two furs used in early armoury, other variations of these developed later. Both in continental heraldry and British, the fur pattern was used in varying colours as a blazon atop other tinctures (e.g., "d'Or, semé d'hermines de sable" for black ermine spots on a gold field[2]).
British heraldry created three names for specific variants, rather than blazoning them longhand.Ermines is the reverse of ermine – a field sablesemé of ermine-spots argent; it is sometimes calledcounter-ermine (cf.Frenchcontre-hermine andGermanGegenhermelin).[2]Erminois is ermine with a fieldor (gold) instead ofargent (silver), andpean is the reverse of erminois (i.e.,or spots on a fieldsable).
Erminites is alleged to be the "same as ermine, except that the two lateral hairs of each spot are red."[4] James Parker mentions it,[5] as does Pimbley,[6] though by the former's admission this is of doubtful existence.Arthur Charles Fox-Davies describes it as a "silly [invention] of former heraldic writers, not of former heralds."[7]
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