pile wavy

The pile was originally quite a simple shape, being a triangle reaching from the top of the shield down to a point near the lower centre A Glossary of Terms used in British Heraldry, J.H. Parker, Oxford, 1894, Entry:Pile. It can also be given a decorative egde style, and Wavy works well in this respect. It is, for obvious reasons, associated with both water and the sea The Symbolisms of Heraldry, W. Cecil Wade, George Redway, London, 1898 P40. Indeed, a roundel with alternating bars of azure and argent (blue and white) is known by the shorthand term fountain, representing water at the bottom of a well A Glossary of Terms used in British Heraldry, J.H. Parker, Oxford, 1894, Entry:Water. Other colours have also been used and the result can be very pleasing to the eye.

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