flaunch

{{Short description|Heraldic charge consisting of two mirrored circular arcs}}

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Image:Flaunches demo.svg

In heraldry, a flaunch ({{IPAc-en|f|l|ɔː|n|tʃ}}; also called flanches or flanks){{cite book|title=A Complete Guide to Heraldry|last=Fox-Davies|first=Arthur Charles|chapter=The Flaunch|year=1909|publisher=T.C. & E.C. Jack|location=Edinburgh, UK}} is among the ordinaries or subordinaries, consisting of two arcs of circles protruding into the field from the sides of the shield. The flaunch is never borne singly.

Plain flaunches are seen in the coats of [http://archive.gg.ca/heraldry/pub-reg/project-pic.asp?lang=e&ProjectID=328&ProjectElementID=1112 Hulbert Paul Lindahl Silver] and [http://archive.gg.ca/heraldry/pub-reg/project-pic.asp?lang=e&ProjectID=883&ProjectElementID=3210 Gillian Patricia Birtwhistle]. They may be of different tinctures, as in the coat of the Free State Women's Agricultural Union (South Africa) where they are orange/tenny and azure.

Flaunches may touch each other, as in the coat of [https://web.archive.org/web/20110721191314/http://www.americanheraldry.org/pages/index.php?n=Armorial.HookB Bradley Hook].

Like any ordinary, they may

• be charged with other things, as in the English coats of [https://web.archive.org/web/20090828061517/http://www.civicheraldry.co.uk/east_anglia_essex.html#harlow%20dc Harlow District Council] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20120504102005/http://www.civicheraldry.co.uk/severn_valley_marches.html#forest%20of%20dean%20dc Forest of Dean District Council].
• have colourings other than plain ones, as in the English coat of [http://www.civicheraldry.co.uk/cheshire_pre74.html#hoylake%20udc Hoylake Urban District Council] and the Canadian one of the [http://archive.gg.ca/heraldry/pub-reg/project.asp?lang=e&ProjectID=1303&ShowAll=1 Central Saanich (British Columbia) Police Service].
• have ornamented edges, as in the Welsh coat of [http://www.civicheraldry.co.uk/wales_current.html#maesteg%20tc Maesteg Town Council].

A very rare variation is square flaunches, as in the coat of [https://www.gg.ca/en/heraldry/public-register/project/1200 Sheila-Marie Suzanne Cook] and the coat of the US Coastguard Cutter [http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/Heraldry/CoastGuard/CuttersUnit.aspx?u=5830 Sequoia]. Parker's glossary, s.v. [http://www.heraldsnet.org/saitou/parker/Jpglossf.htm#Flaunches Flaunches], cites two similar coats for Mosylton or Moselton with square flaunches.