Purpure

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In heraldry, purpure is a tincture, more or less the equivalent of the colour "purple", and is one of the five dark tinctures (colours). It may be portrayed in engravings by a series of parallel lines at a 45 degree angle running from upper right to lower left from the point of view of an observer, or else indicated by using purp. as an abbreviation.

Purpure has existed since the earliest periods, for example in the purpure lion of the arms of León; at that time, it was painted in a greyer shade. However, it has never been as common as the other colours, and this has led to some controversy as to whether it should be counted among the five common colours.

There is one hypothesis that may explain why such a controversial colour should continue to have been counted among the standard colours. Beginning in the sixteenth century, it became fashionable to blazon the arms of royalty using the names of celestial bodies in place of the usual tincture names. Under such a system, it is natural that there should be five dark tinctures, since there were five known planets. Including the sun and moon to represent the light tinctures brings the total to seven, a number associated with divine completeness. Remove the tincture purpure and the tinctures would instead be six, a number associated with earthly corruptibility.

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