of the colours

English

Prepositional phrase

of the colours

1. (heraldry, of a wreath, torse, etc) Having, in alternating sections, the principal metal and principal colour of the associated arms.
   • 1801, William Betham, The Baronetage of England, Or the History of the English Baronets, and Such Baronets of Scotland, as are of English Families: With Genealogical Tables, and Engravings of Their Armorial Bearings, page 306:

     CREST – Upon a torce of the colours, a swan's neck and breast, with wings displayed, proper.

   • 1910, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, Armorial Families: A Directory of Gentlemen of Coat-armour, page 1025:

     Crests - 1. on a wreath of the colours, a cock proper, charged with a crescent gules (Corry); 2. on a wreath of the colours, a garland between two laurel branches vert (Lowry) […]

   • 1915, Rowland Winn St. Oswald (2d Baron of), Maurice Walter Brockwell, Catalogue of the Pictures and Other Works of Art in the Collection of Lord St. Oswald at Nostell Priory, page 290:

     The shield is ensigned by a helmet to dexter with mantlings or and gules, and surmounted by the crest; out of a torse of the colours a lion rampant issuant or.

   • 1983, Charles Boutell, Boutell's Heraldry, Frederick Warne Publishers, page 155:

     Unless other tinctures are specified, the torse, like the mantling, is of the colours, i.e. of the principal metal and the principal colour.