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Giffers commune (Fribourg/Freiburg canton, Switzerland)

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Giffers

by Pascal Gross

Quarterly Or and Gules, four Quatrefoils counterchanged.

Lewis A. Nowitz, 6 December 2000

The German blazon provides ""Geviert von rot und Gold mit vier durchgehenden eingeschnürten Tatzenkreuzen in gewechselten farben."

Pascal Gross, 6 December 2000

I thinks perhaps the "durchgehenden" in fact does need to be included here. I have no idea whether a quatrefoil, when it's the only charge on a coat of arms, would, by default, take up the whole field like, for example, a St. Andrews cross would. The interesting optical punning which creates the tiling effect certainly depends on it. Such a quatrefoil would then presumably become a Tatzenkreuz. Will someone be kind enough to translate "Tatzenkreuz" (and "durchgehend" as a standard heraldic term)?

Lewis A. Nowitz, 6 December 2000

Tatzenkreuz = Cross formy (French: croix pattée); durchgehend = vetu or ("not gold") throughout.

Jarig Bakker, 7 December 2000

So the charge is a cross, not a saltire or flower. Could've fooled me. Did, in fact. So:

Quarterly Gules and Or, four Crosses formy throughout counterchanged ?

Ole Andersen, 7 December 2000

I suggest not blazoning this in traditional terms. It is clearly a modern design of an elegant mathematical nature (interlaced circles and all that) which might better be blazoned in Cartesian coordinates. Try this:

A square flag of side four units quarterly or and gules, origin at the center. Centered at coordinates (-1,2), (1,2), (-2,1), (0,1), (2,1), (0,-1),(0,1),(-2,-1),(0,-1),(2,-1),(-1,-2),(1,-2) twelve circles of unit radius, counterchanged.

Lewis A. Nowitz, 8 December 2000

I found in