Featured Old Unusual Hand Carved Wood Coat of Arms Plaque

In Galicia, there are homes that are 'shingled' with scallop shells(!), many of them are dinner-plate sized...really a startling sight on initial approach.
There also, they use granite(!) posts for grape stakes (and grapes are grown on almost all available space)...an every bit as unusual sight as the scallop-shell shingles!

 

I wouldn't think that's a tourist piece. Do you see how the design is incomplete on both sides? That makes me suspect it's a remnant from a larger carved piece.

Debora

 

Yes...very good, Debora!

 

What country was this piece found in?

Debora

 

I mean the original piece. Tourist wares were often very high quality: think Grand Tour. Florentine micro mosaics spring to mind.

Good point about the remnants though.

 

Well, I do think this could have been removed from something else? There are ¼ inch areas at the top on bottom that are discolored differently from the rest of the wood, like it was inside some sort of frame? I thought the sides may have been cut because the scrolls look to be cut off. When I look at the sides, no saw marks and it looks like it was always that way. The back is the part that I really don’t understand? It looks like it was used as a paint table.

 

USA Illinois

 

I have been doing some research and I found that the open faced helmet and the lion crest were reserved for people of higher stature. Maybe the 3 shells / escallops signify the person made the "Pilgrimage" 3 times?

 

The ink stains make one suspect it came off an old desk.

Debora

 

I should have given my opinion on the piece before I posted the Camino map, but I don't think this piece has any connection with the town of Santiago de Compostela.
I only posted the map and the pilgrim to explain te importance of the Santiago and shell connection, which had been posted before. I should have been more clear about that.

I think this is more likely a family or personal crest. The helmet does indeed indicate aristocracy.
The shell was originaly a symbol of Santiago, but it came to be used for other pilgrimages as well.
I don't think it is Spanish, although I can't be sure about that. I think it is from further north. It is certainly no tourist piece, but connected to a family.

It seems unlikely that anyone undertook the Santiago pilgrimage 3 times, given the time it took from most locations. You would have to be a religious fanatic with no home or family ties, so you could make it your main purpose in life. The number of shells could be an esthetic thing.

 

Just an example of how common shells on crests were, 13th century English crests with shells:


https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/469289223668543624/

 

Interestingly, while looking for a portrait for Marko's porcelain brooch thread, I came across another shell crest, of the Estonian-German von Vietinghoff family:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_von_Krüdener

Searching a bit more, I found this, "Pilgrims and Heraldry":
https://www.theheraldrysociety.com/articles/pilgrims-and-heraldry/

 

Tell you one thing though, it's meant to be blue/gold/blue. The escallops are probably more of an association with St James or the crusades (it meant travel as well as pilgrimage) than Spain.
When I was a kid, there was a recurring ad in the back of the Readers Digest advertising a genealogy thing that found out what your family coat of arms was (whether they had one or not) and sent you a print.

 

That would be true if it were the Santiago crest. Since it isn't, it could be any other colour combination, as the examples I posted show.
Before we find the actual coat of arms it is speculation. We may not even find it at all.

 

I mean by the 'shading' of the surface. Horizontal lines is azure, and gold is small dots.

 

Hadn't thought of that.

 

We Have an answer!!

"Hello. Your coat of arms is early 19th century and not Royal or Noble....but of a reasonably wealthy and notable middle class family from Alexandria in Connecticut, namely the " Whittlesey" family, and your coat of arms was once set into the overmantle above the fireplace in their house that until 1960 stood on the corner of Duke Street and Washington Street."

https://jay.typepad.com/william_jay/2021/08/candidate-for-an-historical-marker-sarah-whittlesey.html

 

Now isn't that interesting! The history of the family's crest can be found here.

https://archive.org/stream/genealogyofwhitt00whit/genealogyofwhitt00whit_djvu.txt

Debora

 

One More Tidbit
"I should add that when I said it probably ended up incorporated into an overmantel (as commonly they did), this wasn't its original use. Yours would have been one of a pair of 'carriage panels'. If you could not afford your own carriage you would hire one, say to go to church on Sunday in the early 19th century. The hired carriage would have an open topped frame set on each door on either side of the carriage and you would drop/slide one of your coat of arms panels into each door to proudly display it, and remove them at the end of the hire. As most carriages were painted black and gold, the panels were likely similarly decorated originally and stripped in later life when refurbished.The side and bottom edges would get worn as slid into the frames, hence the wirn sides were often trimmed off a bit in later life when refurbished, hence you are missing some of the decoration on the sides now. Jon."