cleché

English

A cross cléchée (not voided, nor botony).

A cross cléchée voided botony.

Etymology

From French cléché, from clé.

Adjective

cleché (not comparable)

1. (heraldry) Having ends which flare out (like a cross patté) before tapering back to a point (urdé).
   • 1894, Henry Gough, James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, page 162:

     Argent, a cross clechée sable — Sir Thomas BANASTER, K.G., ob. 2° Ric. II. (as depicted upon his stall-plate at Windsor, elsewhere blazoned, Argent, a cross patty pointed sable).
     Or, on a mount between two lesser ones vert a lamb sable, holding with the dexter forefoot a banner ermine charged with a cross clechée gules—GROSE, Surrey (1756).

   • 1904, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, The Art of Heraldry: An Encyclopaedia of Armory, London: T.C.; & E.C. Jack, page 86:

     […] and of a cross cleché voided and pometté as in the arms of Cawston (Fig. 162).

   • 1974, The Coat of Arms:

     Cross OF TOULOUSE (cross clechy, voided and botonny)

   • 1994, L. A. J. R. Houwen, The Deidis of Armorie: A Heraldic Treatise and Bestiary, page 213:

     (10) — patee : cross clechy, i.e. with the ends of the arms pointed, […]

2. (heraldry) Charged with another bearing of the same figure and of the colour of the field so that only a narrow border of the first bearing remains visible; voided.
   • 1955, Ernest William Tristram, English Wall Painting of the Fourteenth Century, page 44:

     […] our miniatures of c. 1375 or after, namely, the Christ Enthroned of the Fitzwarin Psalter. The background 'prints' formed in the interspaces crosses clechy (i.e. of mascles). This point is interesting if it is considered in relation to the mascles […]

   • 1976, Eric P. Newman, Studies on Money in Early America, page 54:

     Cross cléchée (voided Greek cross formed of four sans-serif L's by closing ends. Three roundels (2 + 1) end each arm. Lys in each angle. PIECE-DE-XXX (pellet, on Lyon coins; engraver's différent, on Metz) DENIERS- Individual punches for all elements; dentilated borders.

Usage notes

• Originally, a cross cléché was one with ends which flared out like a cross patté before tapering back to a point like a cross urdé; Thomas Banaster, for example, bore a cross clechée sable, elsewhere blazoned a cross patty pointed sable, which was solid and not voided. However, the frequency with which many cléché crosses were also depicted voided, especially the Occitan cross of Toulouse (which is cléché, botony or pommetty, and voided), led to the term being taken by some writers to mean voided. Compare sarcelly, which was subject to similar misinterpretation.

Alternative forms

• clechée, cléché, cléchée, clechy

See also

• (pointed): patté (aiguisée, fitchy)
• (voided): voided

References

• “cleché”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.