Editing Fret, Fretty, Fretted

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=Definitions:=  

Fretted - Sometime used to describe long narrow charges (such as arrows) that are interlaced in saltire

==Period:==  

* http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/heraldry/siebmacher/siebmacherordinary.html

==Modern:==  

===Vector Graphics:===  

* Viking Answer Lady - http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/Stars/Heraldry_SVG_Images/index.htm

"When fretty has circles at the intersections of the fret overlaps, it is termed 'nailed', such as "Argent fretty sable nailed Or."

"Since commenters have found examples of the same device both nailed and not nailed in period, nailing...is not worth a CD."

"While a fret is an artistic variant of fretty, in this case, the three frets {couped} are not equivalent to fretty as they are not constrained to fill a space such as a field or an ordinary."

"The fretty is a charge equivalent to a single fret"

One of this month's submissions required a ruling on the status of fretty: should we consider it a field treatment, or a charge group? If a charge group, was it a semy, or an artistic variation of the fret, or a single charge in its own right?

For many years, fretty was considered a field treatment (v. the 1986 Glossary of Terms). Mistress Alisoun specifically overturned this in the LoAR of 25 Feb 90, redefining fretty as "a `semy of frets' and as such contribut[ing] difference. ...Period treatises make it clear that fretty was seen as placed upon the field in the same way that ...other charges semy were strewn. ...Unlike `normal' field treatments, but like secondary charges, a `fretty' can itself be charged." Unfortunately, no period sources were cited.

Better evidence is found in the actual display of armory using fretty/a fret. Nearly every individual bearing arms with a fret on one roll may be found bearing the same arms fretty on another roll: e.g. John Maltravers, late 13th Century, who bore Sable fretty Or on the St. George's Roll and Sable, a fret Or on the Parliamentary Roll. The equivalence held true through Tudor times: the FitzWilliam Roll, c.1530, gives the arms of Theobald Verdon (Or, a fret gules) as Or fretty gules. The equivalence even held true in the presence of other charges on the field: e.g. the arms of Amery St. Armand were seen both as Or fretty and on a chief sable three bezants and Or, a fret and on a chief sable three bezants, and the arms of Despencer were seen both as Quarterly argent and gules fretty Or, a bendlet sable and Quarterly argent and gules, a bendlet sable between two frets Or. The latter example was, again, valid through Tudor times. (Sources: [[http:''heraldry.sca.org/precedents/bruce/references.html#20|Dictionary of British Arms]], vol.I, pp.338-340; [[http://heraldry.sca.org/precedents/bruce/references.html#51|Anglo-Norman Armory II]], pp.454-460; and see also the visual examples in Foster's [[http:''heraldry.sca.org/precedents/bruce/references.html#37|Dictionary of Heraldry]], under the names of Maltravers, Harington/Haverington, and Belhuse/Bellewe.)

===January 2015 - four needles fretted===  

"When fretty has circles at the intersections of the fret overlaps, it is termed 'nailed', such as "Argent fretty sable nailed Or."

"Since commenters have found examples of the same device both nailed and not nailed in period, nailing...is not worth a CD."

"There is a CD for the changes to the tertiaries, but by prior Laurel precedent nothing for the change between a fret and fretty"