Flanches

Among the pieces laid on a shield William St John Hope names one that is seldom met: “Flanches, as they are called, are very rarely found; they are formed by drawing incurving lines within each side of the shield.” He gives no rule for the curve, so the construction here is our own, and it is exact. The shield is laid out as for gyronny, from a line down the middle as long as the shield is wide: its vesica gives the level line through its middle, and from that come the feet of the sides and the top corners. The same vesica leaves two points on the level line, out beyond the sides. A swing about each of them, opened to the top corner on its own side, curves in across the side and out again through the flank. That curve bounds the flanche, and each one reaches in a little over a quarter of the width, level with the feet. Flanches always come as a pair. Here the field is argent and the flanches azure.