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Coat of Arms in the Westerkerk

Posted: 23 Aug 2012, 20:29
by Ryan Shuflin
Here are some pictures I took in the Westerkerk.
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This is just a good example of canting arms
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Too bad there was someone in the chair, so I could not get a better look at the interesting crest
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Arms on a round shield?

Re: Coat of Arms in the Westerkerk

Posted: 23 Aug 2012, 21:25
by Arthur Radburn
Very nice, Ryan.

The arms in the second pic are those of the Scottish family Hope. One branch of the family holds the marquessate of Linlithgow; their arms are differenced by adding a laurel leaf at the centre of the chevron. The crest is a good (bad?) example of one which would be very difficult to wear on a real helmet.

To judge from 18th-century Dutch armorial seals and hatchments in South Africa, round shields were not unknown. Nor were oval shields, and lozenges, which were sometimes used by men as well as women.

Re: Coat of Arms in the Westerkerk

Posted: 24 Aug 2012, 05:15
by Chris Green
I surmise that the Westerkerk in question is the one in Rotterdam.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westerkerk

Is it certain that the circular CoA is actually a genuine CoA? I could imagine the family of a rich but non-armigerous person embellishing his tomb or memorial with something that looked as if it might be a CoA to the less knowledgeable. I note that the example has no crest, mantling or motto, which suggests to me that it was not a genuine CoA. But I could be wrong!

Re: Coat of Arms in the Westerkerk

Posted: 24 Aug 2012, 09:07
by Ton de Witte
If you were rich enough to afford such a stone and a place in the interior of the church then the family almost certainly had arms because they probably would have been members of the local goverment and as such needed a seal which had a coa. The round form is imo just decorative and the roundels are not a part of the arms.

Re: Coat of Arms in the Westerkerk

Posted: 24 Aug 2012, 12:54
by Ryan Shuflin
Oops, nope it is the one in Amsterdam

Re: Coat of Arms in the Westerkerk

Posted: 24 Aug 2012, 13:25
by Chris Green
Silly me. Rotterdam's Westerkerk was destroyed by bombing in 1940.