Category:Division of the shield

Heraldry of the World Thumbnails > Themes

The shield is described from the point of view of the person carrying it, so the sinister or left side of the shield is actually the right side of the image and the dexter or right side is shown as the left side for the viewer. This is particularly of importance when decoding a blazon (description) of a shield.

The following diagram should help to decode some of the other terms which are commonly used.

1 - 3 Chief, 4 - 6 Fess, 7 - 9 Base 1 - 7 Dexter, 2 - 8 Pale, 3 - 9 Sinister

Main divisions

File:Perpale.gif Party per pale	File:Perfess.gif Party per fess	File:Perbend.gif Party per bend	File:Perbends.gif Party per bend sinister	File:Quarterly.gif Quarterly	File:Persaltire.gif Party per saltire
File:Paly.gif Paly	File:Barry.gif Barry	File:Bendy.gif Bendy	File:Bendys.gif Bendy sinister	Chequy	Lozengy
File:Palypily.gif Paly pily	File:Barrypily.gif Barry pily	File:Bendypily.gif Bendy pily	File:Bendypilys.gif Bendy pily sinister	Quarterly of 9	Lozengy bendwise
Tierced per pale	Tierced per fess	File:Embrassed.gif Embrassé a dexter	Embrassé a sinister	Party per chevron	Per chevron reversed
Lozenge throughout	Lozenge throughout arched	Gyronny	File:Gyronny12.gif Gyronny of 12	File:Chevronny.gif Chevronny	File:Chevronnyr.gif Chevronny reversed
File:Perpile.gif Party per pile	Party per pile arched	File:Perpiler.gif Party per pile reversed	Party per pile reversed arched	Party per pile bendwise	File:Perpilebs.gif Party per pile bendwise sinister
File:3-1.gif Party per fess, upper part per pale	File:3-1.gif Party per fess, lower part per pale	Party per pale, first part per fess	Party per pale, second part per fess	Party per pall	Party per pall reversed

Other divisions