Bar (heraldry)
ordinary consisting of a horizontal band across the shield in heraldry
In English heraldry, the bar is an heraldic ordinary consisting of a horizontal band extending across the shield. In form, it closely resembles the fess but differs in breadth: the bar occupies one-fifth of the breadth of the field of the escutcheon (or flag); the fess occupies one-third. Heraldists differ in how they class the bar in relation to the fess. A number of authors consider the bar to be a diminutive of the fess. But, others, including Leigh (1597) and Guillim (1638), assert that the bar is a separate and distinct ‘honorouble ordinary’. Holme (1688) is equivocal. When taken as an honourable ordinary, it is co-equal with the other nine of the English system. Some authors who consider the bar a diminutive of the fess class it as a subordinary. Authorities agree that the bar and its diminutives have a number of features that distinguish them from the fess.
The diminutive of the bar one-half its breadth is the closet, while the diminutive one-quarter its breadth is the barrulet.
“Bar (heraldry)” enters the record as ordinary consisting of a horizontal band across the shield in heraldry. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what heraldry, ordinary and consisting can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Bar (heraldry)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, heraldry, ordinary and consisting provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4857865. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1597, 1638 and 1688.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bar (heraldry)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.