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Heraldry in Maastricht, Part Ten

December 3, 2012, 4:00 am
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Okay, as promised, here are two more armorial stained glass windows in the Basilica of St. Servaas in Maastricht.


This one contains two more female saints, St. Catherine and St. Teresa.


The armorial panel below them contains two coats of arms.  The left-hand panel depicts the arms of Melania de Behr de Laet.  These arms are found in Rietstap's Armorial Général as: de Behr (Maestricht, Bruxelles).  D’arg. à l’ours ramp. de sa. soutenu d’une terrasse de sin.  An English blazon would be: Argent, a bear rampant Sable atop a terrace Vert.  (Yeah, I know, both the bear and the terrace look brown in the window.)

The arms in the right-hand panel are those, if I am reading the Latin correctly (and I am no Latinist!), of Teresa and Maria van der Poes Clement.  These arms are found in Rietstap as one portion of the arms of van der Poest-Clement: D’arg. à trois bill. d’azur, in English, Argent, three billets Azure.  As with one of the coats of arms in the previous post, the window and Rietstap do not match exactly; the window makes the billets (or delfs, as the depiction here makes them square rather than rectangular) red, not blue.  The most likely explanation is that the window depicts the arms of a different branch of the family.  (Other possibilities are that there is an error in Rietstap, or that the glass artist made an error.)  The window also bears the date 1877.


And the final window presented here has, in the upper two rows of panes, scenes from the lives (and deaths) of two saints.


The armorial panel below them contains two coats of arms.  The left-hand armorial panel depicts the arms of the Comte de Gelors.  Rietstap has these arms as Geloes: De sable à la croix engr. d’or; Sable, a cross engrailed Or (yes, I know that the cross looks more like indented here, but indented is a lot easier to depict in stained glass than engrailed is),  and has the same motto: In hoc signo vinces (In this sign, conquer).

I am not yet certain of the arms in the right-hand armorial panel.  But it was either keep hunting for the shield in my "spare" time and delay this posting, or admit that I do not (yet!) have the time I'd like for heraldic research and get the post up as I promised myself I would do.  You can see for yourself the choice I made.

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Heraldry in Maastricht, Part Eleven

December 6, 2012, 4:00 am
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Continuing with more highlights from our heraldic tour of St. Servaas Basilica in Maastricht, there were lots and lots of carved armorial (and a bunch of non-armorial) memorials set into the floors.  Some of the following may look like they were cast in metal, but they are all carved in stone, polished by the soles of the hundreds of feet which have walked across them over the years.





The arms to sinister (to the right as you look at it) are reminiscent - though they do not match, as this one appears to be wearing a boot and the one below is wearing only a sandal, plus there is a star in dexter chief in the coat in Florence - the following coat of arms that I photographed in Florence, Italy a couple of years ago.


We now return you to the armorial memorials found in the Basilica of St. Servatius.






Because of where some of these memorials lay in the basilica (under chairs, under portable pews, etc.), I was not always able to photograph the text accompanying the arms.  And in others, the text was simply too worn to read well.  However, for the last coat of arms above, I obtained a clear photograph of the the text, which read (in Latin, of course):


Hic iacet sepultus reveren
dus dominus Michael Crusens
iul huius ecc~liæ canonicus
obiit 1 Martii 1626 requiescat
in sancta pace amen

And finally, there was this example, which has been cut down (and probably moved from its original location in the basilica) to serve as a paving tile.  (Leading me to the question: "If they saw heraldry in half in a basilica, is it still considered to be heraldic heresy?")  Admittedly, it does not appear that the arms of the individual buried there were cut down (those would be in the circle of which you can see the bottom arc here), but "only" those of some of his ancestors down the left-hand side of the memorial.


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Heraldry in Maastricht, Part Twelve

December 10, 2012, 4:00 am
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For the final heraldic offering from the ridiculously large number of photographs I took in the Basilica of St. Servaas in Maastricht, is this beautiful triptych set in a side (presumably private) chapel in the basilica.

The central panel shows the martyrdom of St. Sebastian, with the side panels portraying the husband and men of the household on the left and the wife and women of the household on the right, each group with their own saint.



The left-hand panel also bears the arms of the husband (Quarterly, 1 and 4, Vert? three lions rampant Argent? armed, langued and crowned Gules?, 2 and 3, Sable six Xs three, two, and one Or),


while the right-hand panel bears the marshalled arms of husband (as above) and wife (Or on a bend Sable three mullets Or) on a lozenge (as was appropriate for a woman, but certainly cramping the design of the husband's quarterly coat!).



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Heraldry in Maastricht, Part Thirteen

December 13, 2012, 4:00 am
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Leaving the Basilica of St. Servaas and walking along one side of Vrijthof Square, we come to the Museum aan het Vrijthof (previously the Museum Spaans Gouvernement), a museum of local history, art and artifacts housed in the old Spanish government building.  (The Museum also has a great set of entrance doors, but non-heraldic and thus not particularly related to the topic of this blog.  Still, if you are ever in the neighborhood, you should consider visiting.)


The facade of the building is dominated by a row of windows, the three on the right of which each have an arch above them which house heraldic elements.


The central of the three has a rendition of the double-headed eagle, on its breast a shield marshalling the arms of Austria (the Hapsburgs were also known as the House of Austria and they used the arms of Austria extensively; the family arms were different: Or a lion rampant Gules armed, langued, and crowned Azure) and Castile.  While impressive, it does seem to be a bit crudely painted.


The windows on either side have the imperial crown between the crowned pillars of Hercules, a badge adopted by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, along with his motto, Plus Oultre (in Old French, it is often written as the Latin Plus Ultra; in either case it means "further beyond").  The pillars and motto can still be found used in the achievement of arms of Spain, where the pillars are used as supporters for the shield.  (See, e.g., http://www.ngw.nl/int/spa/spannat.htm)

(The netting in the close-ups is to keep the pigeons from roosting or nesting there; pigeons everywhere seem to have no respect at all for art.)

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Heraldry in Maastricht, Part Fourteen

December 17, 2012, 4:00 am
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Next door to the Museum aan het Vrijthof (the red building just barely showing on the right in the photograph below, and which I discussed in my last post) is a white brick building housing the GE Artesia Bank.


What is really cool about this building is that across the front (above),


down the side (above),


and across the back (above) is a row of some sixteen coats of arms (one is a duplicate; two of the arms, one on the front and one on the back, are the arms of the City of Maastricht), each set into the wall on a concrete (I believe) square.

Each coat of arms is painted as well as hatched.  They are, in order from right to left, beginning on the front of the building, going down the side, and then across the back:

The City of Maastricht


The City of Rotterdam


The City of Amsterdam


 The Province of North Holland


 The Province of Friesland


 The Province of Grongingen


 The Province of Overijssel


The Province of Drenthe


 The Province of South Holland


 The Kingdom of The Netherlands


 The Province of Zeeland


 The Province of North Brabant


 The City of Maastricht (again)


 The Province of Limburg


 The Province of Gelderland


  The Province of Utrecht

Isn't that all a great display of heraldry?

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Heraldry in the News

December 20, 2012, 4:00 am
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I’ve been so busy lately, what with working full-time, keeping my website up-to-date (well, sort of; it really needs a good going-over), doing all of the necessary weekly chores that come with owning a home and living a life, plus going through my photos from Maastricht heraldry to share with you here, that I’ve gotten a little behind in keeping up with some of the news items that crop up that discuss heraldry and coats of arms.


In an article on November 20, 2012, by BelTA, the Belarusian Telegraph Agency, at http://news.belta.by/en/news/culture?id=699480, we learn that “The symbol of Grodno will appear in all iconic places of the regional capital, BelTA learnt from the ideology department of the Grodno City Council.”

The city of Grodno had held a contest for the best ideas to decorate the reconstructed Privokzalnaya Square. The winner was a sculpture of St. Hubert’s deer, a symbol depicted in the coat of arms of the city (a depiction of the city's arms appears below). According to the BelTA article, dozens of proposals from artists and sculptors for decorating tourist routes in the city had been submitted. In the end, though, it was decided that the image of St. Hubert’s deer will remain the primary symbol of Grodno.
St. Hubert is called the "Apostle of the Ardennes," and was the first Bishop of Liège, Belgium. According to his legend, on one Good Friday morning, when the faithful were crowding the churches, Hubert sallied forth to the chase. As he was pursuing a magnificent stag or hart, the animal turned and he was astounded at perceiving a crucifix standing between its antlers, while he heard a voice saying: "Hubert, unless thou turnest to the Lord, and leadest an holy life, thou shalt quickly go down into hell". Hubert dismounted, prostrated himself and said, "Lord, what wouldst Thou have me do?" He received the answer, "Go and seek Lambert, and he will instruct you." He then renounced all of his honors, gave up his birthright to the Aquitaine to his younger brother Odo, and studied for the priesthood under Lambert in Maastricht. His symbol since then has been a deer or stag with a Latin cross or a crucifix between its antlers.

Isn't it great to see a city not only using, but expanding the usage of, its coat of arms?
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Heraldry in the News

December 23, 2012, 4:00 am
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A recent article in the Evesham Journal (dated November 23, 2012) asks the question, “Is town’s old coat of arms worth £2,500?”

The article notes that £2,685 will be the cost to the town council to have the old Pershore Rural District Council coat of arms (transferred to Wychavon District Council in 1974 during a local government reorganization) re-granted to the town by the College of Arms.

While many of the town councilors are in favor of re-adopting the coat of arms, others members felt it was dated and needed a redesign. Others expressed the view that it wasn’t worth paying for at all, suggesting that the money might be better spent on the local library. Councilman Derek Watt is quoted as saying, “It seems to me that as it was designed many years ago it would be useful that the town council have it for historical value. I think we need something more modern.”

[Sarcasm on] Why, yes, by all means, you should spend a lot of money to a graphic design firm to come up with a “more modern” logo, something that will look outdated in five to seven years, instead of realizing that an “old” coat of arms can and may be interpreted by different artists in a “more modern” style and continue to be kept up to date in that way, thus allowing you to keep both the historical and new renditions to suit all of your purposes. [Sarcasm off]

The full story (without my sarcasm) can be found on-line at: http://www.eveshamjournal.co.uk/news/10064239.Is_town___s_old_coat_of_arms_worth___2_500_/

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A Christmas-related Post

December 25, 2012, 4:00 am
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So I was thinking about what I might post as a celebration of the season that also related to heraldry, and I was reminded while looking through a recently downloaded armorial that coats of arms were attributed to many pre-heraldic individuals. (Because, don’t you know, that if important people use heraldry today, or even in the late middle ages, then, by golly!, people throughout history must also have used coats of arms.)

So in keeping with the Christmas season, here are two different renditions (and two versions - one the black and white original and the second one hand-colored) of the arms of the Magi, wise men "from the East" who brought gifts to the newborn child in Bethlehem.

I've added my own translations from the German of the descriptions below.

First, the black and white version from Virgil Solis’ Wappenbuchlein, published in Nuremberg in 1555. (A reprint of the entire “heraldry booklet” is available to purchase softbound or in .pdf format at: http://www.appletonstudios.com/BooksandGames.htm)

The Holy Three Kings: Caspar, Balthaser, and Melcher


The second version is also from the Wappenbuchlein, this one is available to view on-line or as a free download in .pdf format from the website of Heidelberg University: http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/solis1555/0001)


And finally, from the Wernigeroder Wappenbuch, created in the late 1400s, available to view on-line or as a free download in .pdf format from the website of the Bavarian State Library at: http://bsb-mdz12-spiegel.bsb.lrz.de/~db/0004/bsb00043104/images/

The holy three kings
     The holy king Caspar of Arabia
     The holy king Balthasar of Tarsus (I think; the placename is not that easy to parse)
     The holy king Melchior of Saba


Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good (heraldic) night!

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Heraldry-Like Items in Maastricht

December 27, 2012, 4:00 am
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One of the things foreigners in the Low Countries notice, especially those keeping an eye out for coats of arms and heraldry, are the house signs one sees on the facades of buildings.  Maastricht was no exception to this; it seemed that every street I walked down (or up) there had buildings with these emblems on them, each one unique, and often also marked with a date (presumably that of the construction of the building).  Such signs used to serve in the place of house numbers; one didn't look for a house number and street name, one looked for, e.g., the Golden Ram on X street.

And, of course, many of these house signs could be considered heraldic in nature; certainly many of them share many of the same traits as good heraldry: good contrast, distinctiveness, animals in stylized postures, and easy identifiability.  So with that introduction, here is a selection of these house signs I discovered in my wanderings about the streets of Maastricht.











The above is on the facade of the appropriately-named
Hotel du Casque
(Hotel of the Helmet)



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Unexpected Heraldry in Maastricht

December 31, 2012, 4:00 am
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One bit of heraldry that I did not expect to run across in Maastricht was the following, used as a house sign; that it was the house sign for a shop called Jacks and Jeans was even less expected.



As you can see, the man in the ship is Edward, King of England, the legend around the image being the Latin (often abbreviated here) for, well, I'm not certain what the IBE stands for, but then we have "Edward by the Grace of God King of England and France" and then we have the DNS (the tilda above the N generally is scribal shorthand for another N; I don't know what that stands for, either.

Nor do I know which King Edward this is supposed to represent.  The French quarters of the Royal Arms have only three fleurs-de-lys (often called France Modern).  If this is accurate (and not just an error for the use of the earlier France Ancient, Azure semy-de-lis Or), the first Edward to use this version was Edward IV (reigned 1461-1470, 1471-1483).

If that is not the case and the earlier version of the French arms is meant (for example, the depiction of Edward III in William Bruges' Garter Book shows France Modern rather than France Ancient), then this is Edward III (reigned 1327-1377), who was the first English king who quartered France with England on his shield.

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Faux Heraldry in Maastricht

January 3, 2013, 4:00 am
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One of the, well, not "pleasures" exactly, of seeking out heraldry when I travel is the imitation or fake heraldry that I run across.  And this even in cities that are chock full of the real thing.  So, that said, you have been warned.  Here are a few of the imitations of heraldry that I ran across during my stay in Maastricht.


The above is the, well, I hesitate to use the term "coat of arms" since heraldically is it a very poor design, so let's just call it the logo of the Onafhankelijk Maastrichts Studenten Genootschap Plutarchus, the  Independent Student Association Maastricht Plutarch.



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Heraldry in Maastricht, Part Eighteen

January 7, 2013, 4:00 am
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For our antepenultimate heraldic stop in Maastricht, we have the stone memorials lined up the outside of St. Mathias church (just around the corner from the State House and Market Square).  The memorials are within an area that is now a car park that can be closed off at night by the residents there.  I assume that the car park now covers what used to be a graveyard.  (This seems to happen a fair bit in Europe: John Knox is buried in Edinburgh under what is now a car park, and the body of Richard III was recently identified after being found under a car park in England.)

Be that as it may, the church was closed when I was there so I was unable to see inside, but here's a good sampling of the heraldic stones that I found alongside the church while I was there.


As you can see from many of these pictures, they have placed a protective fence in front of the memorials.  That's good for the memorials, but tougher on the photographer trying to get a clean shot of them.


The next two photographs are details of the shields to the left and right (dexter and sinister), respectively, of the shield with the two fish in the center.





The following three photographs are of the helm and crest, coat of arms, and inscription, respectively, of the stone above.




Finally, these last two pictures are of stones set into a brick wall at the back of the car park, and not along the exterior wall of St. Mathias church.




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Heraldry in Maastricht, Part Nineteen

January 10, 2013, 4:00 am
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So in this next to last post about the heraldry in Maastricht, I know this should come as no surprise to you, but they seem to drink a lot of beer in the Low Countries.  And, as a consequence, they advertise a lot of beer in the Low Countries.  And, a bunch of this advertising appears on beer coasters.

What follows is a selection of armorial beer coasters I ran across in the many restaurants in Maastricht at which we ate.  (Have I mentioned before that, given the number of restaurants in the city, I think their town motto must be the Latin for "You ain't gonna starve here"?  Or perhaps, "If you starve here, it's your own fault.")




(Hey, I didn't say they were all really good heraldry!)

And finally, the following are both sides of the coasters they used for the Congress reception at the Stadhuis; each side has a depiction of the arms of the city of Maastricht ("gemeente" on the reverse translates literally as "commune," but a more accurate translation into English of "Gemeente Maastricht" would probably be "Community of Maastricht"); the reverse has a relatively minimalist interpretation of the angel supporter holding the arms, while the obverse is a larger version of the shield with the angel's hands holding it.



Whew, I'm parched.  Anyone up for a ... Dr. Pepper?

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Heraldry in Maastricht, Part Twenty (and Finis)

January 14, 2013, 4:00 am
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In this, the final, installment of some of the heraldry seen in Maastricht, The Netherlands, we have the heraldry that you are most likely to see when you enter the town and again on your way out when you leave.    I am referring, of course, to the wonderful armorial stained glass windows in the main hall of the local train station there.  (Have I mentioned how much I enjoy traveling by train in Europe?  It's quick, it's economical, and it will take you just about anywhere you want to go, comfortably and with reasonable efficiency.  I really wish we could convince some of our bureaucrats here in the States to develop a similar system, but I fear that will never be.  But I digress.)

So, right!  Maastricht train station.  Armorial stained glass panels.  With the arms of the City of Maastricht, several regional entities, and a few personal coats of arms.  (I've identified most of the regional arms already, as they appear in the armorial panels on the GE Artesia Bank building in Maastricht which I shared with you earlier here: http://blog.appletonstudios.com/2012/12/heraldry-in-maastricht-part-fourteen.html)  The entire set was too large to get into a single photograph, so I've had to put them here in sections, basically in order from left to right; you'll be able to notice where a couple of the photos overlap.

All in all, though, it's a very impressive display, both of civic pride and of heraldry.  So without further ado, here's what we saw on our way out of the city.









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Unexpected Heraldry in Aachen, Germany

January 17, 2013, 4:00 am
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On Wednesday, September 26, 2012, those attendees of the International Congress of Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences (attendance at which is the reason we were in Maastricht then) who desired had the opportunity to take a day trip to Aachen, Germany and a couple of other places.  I always try to go on one of the offered daytrips at the Congresses; you can see and learn so much.

One of things that I learned on this trip was that there isn't a whole lot of heraldry at the cathedral in Aachen.  There's some, along with a whole lot of really impressive mosaics, and of course, Charlemagne's throne, which looks really uncomfortable to sit on.  (They don't let you sit on it to find out for yourself, but its made of stone and all sharp corners internally, so how comfortable do you think that would be to have to sit on?)

I did, however, run across a coat of arms that I had no idea I might see there.  Indeed, I'm still (months later) not sure why it's there.  It was on the facade of a Uhren Schmuck store (they sell watches and jewelry).  Here's the relevant portion of the facade.


Recognize those arms on the right?


Yes, the Royal Arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, in use since the accession of Queen Victoria.  (Except that the unicorn supporter seems to be missing its horn.)  And why are these arms on the front of a store in Aachen, Germany?  I don't have a clue.  Even if Uhren Schmuck were purveyors of watches or jewelry to one of the British royal family, this is not the way that such a status is normally displayed. (The expected version would be a colored rendition of the Royal Arms along with the text "By appointment to," in this case, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.)  Was the store formerly something English and just left up when it changed owners?  Is it just a pretty design that Uhren Schmuck is using there?  Or is there some other reason for it?  I don't know.  But there it was, surprising me on my walk from the tour bus to the cathedral.  Surprise!

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A Castle With Heraldry

January 21, 2013, 4:00 am
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Another place we visited and got to spend some good time wandering through was the Kasteel Hoensbroek near Hoensbroek, a town in the municipality of Heerlen, The Netherlands.

It's a bit of a tourist trap now, as you can see from the banners flying outside the castle.  And though the oldest parts of the buildings date to about 1360 (especially the round tower), a number of major additions were made in the 17th and 18th Centuries, long past the time of the armored knights on horseback shown (with the lion facing to sinister on the shield!) on the banners.


Still, there was some good heraldry to see and photograph there; the following two pictures are the Hoensbroeck family coat of arms (Quarterly, one and four, four bars overall a lion rampant crowned, 2 tow and three, quarterly; marshalled with Quarterly, one and four, a closed barnacle or breys, and two and three, a rabbit rampant) over the main entrance to the castle (with the date 1643) and over another doorway in the courtyard (with the date 1640).



The castle was sold in 1927 to the present owner, the foundation Ave Rex Christe.  The foundation's logo-style "arms" appear in this achievement, along with a shield of the unquartered Hoensbroek arms and another shield with crossed battleaxes, and with dates indicating the year of purchase (1927) and the date of another major restoration effort (1988).


Finally, one of the nicest artifacts (heraldically speaking, of course!) they had on display in the castle was this old seal matrix on a red velvet pillow in a glass case, along with a seal impression (in something white; perhaps plaster?) next to it so you could see what it would look like.  It bore, of course, the unquartered Hoensbroek arms, blazoned in Rietstap's Armorial Général as: D'arg. à quatre fasces de gu. (Haren); au lion de sa., arm., lamp. et cour. d'or br. sur le tout (Howen van den Broeck).  [Argent, four bars Gules (for Haren); overall a lion rampant Sable, armed, langued and crowned Or (for Hoen van den Broek.]


Interestingly enough, the coat of arms of the town of Hoensbroek is a blue shield charged with a gold angel who is holding the family arms of Hoensbroek.  (Image from Wikipedia.)


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Heraldry in the News!

January 24, 2013, 4:00 am
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There was a nice little article last month (December 25, 2012) about Sir William Strickland, the man who is believed to have introduced that New World bird, the turkey, into England, which included a photograph of the lectern in the village church where he is buried which bears his coat of arms and a carved representation of his crest, which was (wait for it!) ... a turkey.


And here are more images of his arms (and crest) found on the internet.



The full article can be found on-line at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-20672110  But don't you just love that lectern?

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Some Real, Not Reel, Heraldry

January 28, 2013, 4:00 am
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Well, this was fun!  For those of us here in the States, the third season of the British series Downton Abbey has finally begun to air here.  And as part of the run-up to the broadcast of the first episode of this season (which has already ended its run in Britain, I believe), the Public Broadcasting Service aired a BBC special about the real-life home which plays the role of Downton Abbey, entitled Secrets of Highclere Castle.  While I was able to watch the special when it aired, I was not, alas, able to get any screen shots of some of the heraldry to be found in this home to George Herbert, the 8th Earl of Carnarvon, and his wife Fiona Herbert, the Countess of Carnarvon.  (For those of you who think that you might recognize the name, yes, the current Earl's great-grandfather was the Lord Carnarvon, the 5th Earl, who financed Howard Carter and the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen early in the last century.)  Fortunately for me, and thus for you, PBS uploaded the entire episode so that it could be viewed from the internet, and I managed to grab the following screen shots for this post here, which I have mentally subtitled "Some of the Heraldry of Highclere Castle."

The arms of the Herberts, Earls of Carnarvon, are blazoned as Per pale Azure and Gules three lions rampant Argent (sometimes, armed and langued Or).  The crest is A wyvern, wings elevated Vert, holding in the mouth a sinister hand couped at the wrist Gules.  The supporters are:  Dexter: A panther guardant Argent semy of torteaux and hurts, flames issuant from the mouth and ears Proper.  Sinister: A lion Argent.  Each supporter ducally gorged per pale Azure and Gules and chained Or, and charged on the shoulder with an ermine spot Sable.  The family's motto is: Ung je servirai (I will serve one).

And here is a nicely carved wooden image of the arms, properly hatched, surmounted by the coronet of an earl:


Next are three shots from different viewpoints of the main hall in the castle, a three-story atrium with a minstrels gallery decorated with coats of arms from the current and former residents.




And here are close ups of three of the coats of arms from the gallery.


This first one is, of course, arms of Herbert, Per pale Azure and Gules three lions rampant Argent.


This second one is Azure a fess compony Or and Sable between three seapies Argent (Sawyer, co. Cambridge or Causton, co. Norfolk) marshalled with Sable a fess nebuly Argent goutty de sang between three elephant’s heads Or (Suckling, London).  (The identifications are from Papworth's Ordinary of British Armorials.) Nothing I could find in my copy of Burke's Peerage (I have the 1938 edition) gave me any clue as to what relationship any of these families may have had with the Herberts.


The third one is Herbert marshalled with Or a pheon Sable (Sharpe or Sidney/Sydney, according to Papworth).

Another really nice bit of heraldic decoration in the castle were a couple of embroidered firescreens.



Unfortunately, while the Herbert arms can be made out on the dexter (to the left as you look at them) side of the firescreens, neither of the images I was able to capture is clear enough to be able to adequately identify the arms on the sinister side (to the right).

In this (short) look at some of the heraldry of Highclere Castle, I did save what I consider to be the best for last.  This is the achievement of arms over the main entrance to the castle itself, with the arms surmounted by the coronet of an Earl, the supporters on either side, and the motto below.  It also looks to me like there is a circular recess above that coronet that may once have held the crest.



The arms are Herbert marshalled with Molyneux Howard: Quarterly, 1 and 4, Azure a cross moline quarter-pierced Or, 2 and 3, Gules on a bend between six crosses crosslet fitchy Argent an escutcheon Or charged with a demi-lion rampant pierced through the mouth by an arrow within a double tressure flory counter-flory Gules.

Henry John George Herbert, 3rd Earl of Carnarvon, married 1830 Henrietta Anna, eldest daughter of Lord Henry Thomas Molyneux Howard and niece of Bernard Edward Howard, 12th Duke of Norfolk.

All in all, an impressive display of several hundred years' worth of the heraldry of a family!  If you wish to see the special itself, I found it on-line at http://video.pbs.org/video/2320059755

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Heraldry in the Blogosphere

January 28, 2013, 7:14 pm
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Puttering about on the internet as I do sometimes, I occasionally run across a blog post in one place or another that relates to heraldry.  And just such a serendipitous find occurred today, when I ran across an old (April 2010, so nearly three years old now) post at Gordon Napier History on the coats of arms of the Grand Masters of the Knights Templar.

Yes, I believe that some of these arms may be somewhat speculative, and the history of the order is not without its own controversies.  Still, the author of the post included a bit of history of the order, a listing of its grand masters and some of their duties, and a nice graphic of their coats of arms, which I thought worth sharing with you.


The post, "Grand Masters of the Knights Templar," can be found on-line at: http://gordonnapierhistory.blogspot.com/2010/04/grand-masters-of-knights-templar.html

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Heraldry in Frankfurt, Germany

January 31, 2013, 4:00 am
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After the Congress in Maastricht had finished up, Jo Ann and I hopped the train for Heidelberg, Germany.  (My great-grandfather was born there, and I'd had a genealogist trace the family as far back as possible there, and we were going to see what we could find that related to these ancestors.  But more on that later.)  We had to change trains in the Frankfurt main train station, and I had a little time to look around and see what heraldry was available there.  Not surprisingly, there were a few really great coats of arms there.


First and foremost was this deeply carved eagle (on a stone above it were the dates 1883 - 87; I'm assuming these are the dates of the construction of the station).  I'm pretty sure it's the arms of the city of Frankfurt, though the arms I've seen for the city do not have the scepter and orb.  See, for example, this depiction from the Heraldry of the World website.


Over a couple of other of the massive doorways in the station were these two coats of arms.



Based on the mural crowns surmounting each coat, these are clearly civic arms of some sort.  But just try looking up "a lion rampant" or "a bend" (possibly gules, if the hatching is correct), and you get more entries than I have the time or patience to sort through.  (The lion is not Heidelberg, whose arms have the lion crowned and atop a trimount, neither of which appear in the coat here.)  Possibilities include Brauschweig (Brunswick) for the lion and Strasbourg for the bend (again, assuming it is red), but I feel certain there are other, possibly even more likely, candidates.

I also find myself very impressed by the the carving of the laurel/oak wreaths surrounding the bases of the shields.  (As I am with all of the carving, really.  It was all very impressive.)

(Oh, yeah, and the little spiky things you can see on the ledge below the shield with the bend and atop the crown above the shield with the eagle?  Just a little something to keep the pigeons from alighting there and doing what pigeons all over the world do: crapping on the art.

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