Tricking

This article is about the term relating to heraldry. For the acrobatics training discipline, see tricking (martial arts).

Tricking is a method for indicating the tinctures (colours) used in a coat of arms by means of text abbreviations written directly on the illustration. Tricking and hatching are the two primary methods employed in the system of heraldry to show colour in black and white illustrations.

Tricked arms of John Browne of Spexhall, Suffolk (1591)
An example of early tricking. Coat of arms of Cardinal Giovanni di Aragona (1456–1485), archbishop of Esztergom [1]
  1. ^ Ciacconius, Alphonsus (1677). Vitae et res gestae Pontificum romanorum et S.R.E.Cardinalium: ab initio nascentis Ecclesiae vsque ad Clementem IX P.O.M. [Life and achievements of the Roman Pontiffs and the HRC Cardinals: from the beginnings until Clement IX] (in Latin). Vol. 3. Philippi et Ant. De Rubeis. Column 65, XIX.