PROPOSED COATS OF ARMS OF NEW AMSTERDAM AND NEW NETHERLAND
Proposed Coats of Arms
Among the papers of Hans Bontemantel, Director of the Amsterdam Chamber of the West India Company, held by the New York Public Library are these drawings of proposed coats of arms for New Amsterdam and New Netherland prepared by an anonymous artist in 1630 for the consideration of the Heeren XIX (the Lords Nineteen), the nineteen member ruling council of the West India Company.
The drawing on the right was adopted for New Netherland, and the left and center drawings were proposed for New Amsterdam. The left drawing was rejected immediately because, unlike the others, the beavers completely displaced the lions, an integral element in old Amsterdam's coat of arms. The middle drawing was provisionally accepted, but ultimately rejected.
Sources: Jewes in America: Conquistadors, Knickerbockers, Pilgrims, and the Hope of Israel, Guide to the Exhibition at the New York Public Library. Full Exhibition Guide available online.
The Colony of New Netherland: A Dutch Settlement in Seventeenth-Century America, by Jaap Jacobs, p. 106.
