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

Some more divisions and their blasoning are shown below:

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