Diapered

Diapered

Diapered, (fr. diapré): an ancient mode of relieving the plain tinctures of fields and charges by arabesque and other patterns, generally of a darker shade of the same colour, and left to the fancy of the painter or sculptor. Some species of diapering have been mistaken for fretty, as that on the tomb of Robert DE VERE, in the church of Hatfield-Broad-Oak, Essex. At the same time it appears to have been recognised as a mode of tincture, as in the following:--

Le Counte CHAUMPAINE, d'azur a une bende d'argent a custeres d'or diasprez--Roll, temp. HEN. III., Harl. MS. 6589.

Le Counte DEL ILLE, de goules a treis barres dor diasprez--Ibid.

What is meant by diapers in the following arms as thus blazoned in Burke is not clear. Papworth suggests didapper, an aquatic bird.

Argent, on a chevron gules between three diapers azure, a crescent or charged with a mullet sable--BREDNELL, London.