A tiny alliance coat of arms is painted on the black side panels of Castle de Haar's Hunt Break. The total representation is not much bigger than a postage stamp. However small, it is literally and figuratively the culmination of the restoration work.

The colors of the Van Zuylen family are red and white: those colors reflected, for example, on the shutters of the houses. The coat of arms consists of three red columns on a white field. The carriages bear on the side a so-called alliance coat of arms, a combination of the arms of Baron Etienne van Zuylen van Nijevelt van de Haar and that of his beloved Baroness Hélène de Rothschild. The arms are placed on the belt (order ribbon) of the English Order of the Garter with the text Non Titubans on it and that the family motto of the Van Zuylens meaning "Do not hesitate.

Don't hesitate, even the coat of arms painter at Restoration Center Stolk had to think when he set to work restoring those little arms on the break. For they had almost disappeared in deep, coarse, lumpy craquelé from the old paint. Over this hilly landscape, after cleaning, Stolk added to the missing fragments in the miniature paintings with a fine brush. "Reversible," the restorer hastens to add, because if someone else doesn't like it in the future his work can be removed without damaging the old. "It was not easy over this hilly landscape to somewhat recreate the missing fragments in the miniature images," it sounds with a slight sigh. The arms on De Haar's other carriages could serve as examples for the reconstruction. Although the execution on them is different anyway. After all, each artist gave his own twist to the execution.

Herman Valen drew out the coat of arms of the Grand Duc so that the restorer could examine it closely. Herman, as a volunteer at the castle and a lover of heraldry, saw another remarkable detail of the coat of arms: "Above this is a so-called baronial crown, this baronial crown is that of the Austrian Netherlands. The baronial crowns of France, where Hélène comes from, and Belgium, Etienne's native country, are much simpler and were, I think, too insubstantial in the eyes of the couple."

With the literal crowning of the carriage at the end of the year, the end of the restoration of the Jachtbreak was also gradually approaching. The coachwork is now ready for the final varnish to be applied.

Read part 8 here!

Mario Broekhuis (51), a stewardship graduate, feels completely at home at a historic country estate like De Haar. Moreover, he knows alesson of carriagesand can tell wonderful stories about it. That is why Mario gives us a monthly update on the progress of the restoration of three carriages for De Haar on this page. The three carriages in this project come from the management of Borg and Nationaal Rijtuigmuseum Nienoord and are transferred to long-term loan by Castle de Haar. This project has been made possible by VZW Pater Davids, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, VSBfonds, Stichting Bonhomme Tielens and Stichting kasteel de Haar. The Hippomobile Heritage Foundation is supervising the implementation and providing communication.