goutte purpure?

[steven harris]

Like roundels, gouttes (droplets) have special tincture-based names.

I could have sworn that a purple goutte was used to symbolize a droplet of wine, and was named appropriately. But now, I can’t seem to find a reference to that anywhere.

Did I just make that up, or are my sources letting me down?

[Chris Green]

Boutell can't help. But he calls these names "fanciful". I suppose you could call it goutte de vin but strictly speaking you would then have to specify if it was vin gules or vin argent.

[Jeremy Kudlick]

I can't find any reference to a specific name for a goutte purpure, but gouttes of the other primary tinctures have "fanciful names". I wonder whether Boutell considers the names of roundels (e.g. a bezant) to be "fanciful"?

[steven harris]

I have no problem with blazoning it a "goutte purpure" - it just seems odd that all of the other ones have "special" names while the purple one does not.

[Jeremy Kudlick]

I found a reference to a goutte de vin on the Society for Creative Anachronism site at http://heraldry.sca.org/primer/goutes.html. Not an heraldic authority, but it's a start. Now to find where they got their information...

They do have a cute mnemonic for remembering which goutte is what:
(sung to the tune of Do Re Mi)

D'eau: a goutte, a silver goutte.
D'or: a drop of golden sun.
D'huile: a name for olive gouttes.
Poix: a pitch-drop on the run.
Sangue: a needle-prick that's bled.
Larmes: the tears of blue that flow.
Vin: a drink with thou and bread
That will bring us back to d'eau d'eau d'eau d'eau ...

[Jeremy Kudlick]

Fox-Davies in A Complete Guide to Heraldry states that "British heraldry alone has evolved separate names for the different colours, all other nations using the term 'goutté' or 'gutté,' and specificying the colour." He goes on to list those names, but purpure is not among the list of special names. I have only been able to locate the term "goutte de vin" among SCA heraldry and as the name of a company in Québec.

A quick search of that part of the Public Register of Canada which is available online only produces four grants which include gouttes. Three are goutté (2 de larmes, and 1 de poix), and the fourth uses three gouttes argent on the crest.

[steven harris]

from the Italians?
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrima

[Chas Charles-Dunne]

Goutte de vin, sounds good enough to me.

[Jeremy Kudlick]

from the Italians?
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrima

Interesting the goutte de vin is in the Italian Wikipedia and not the English. I wonder if it's in other languages as well.

[steven harris]

I also found it on the American Heraldry Society's Heraldic Primer:
http://www.americanheraldry.org/pages/i ... Page3#toc5