More International Heraldry from The Mariners’ Museum

Another well done achievement of non-U.S. arms found at The Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia (you can find out more about the Museum from their website, http://marinersmuseum.org/), is this 19th Century carving of the arms of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The arms may be blazoned in English as: Azure billety, a lion rampant or, armed and langued gules, crowned with the Royal Netherlands crown, a sword proper bendwise sinister in its right paw, a garb of seven arrows inverted argent with heads tied with a ribbon or in its left paw. The shield is ensigned with the Royal Netherlands crown and is supported by two lions rampant guardant silver (today they are lions rampant [not guardant] or), armed and langued gules, atop a ribbon bearing the motto JE MAINTIENDRAI (I will maintain). (The motto today is usually in gold letters on a blue ribbon; here, obviously, it is in black on white.)

It’s always a pleasure to see a well-done three-dimensional rendering of a coat of arms, with or without the external ornaments, and this is a very nice piece.