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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Any Jewelry, post: 492666, member: 2844&quot;]I would say Mechelen, Belgium, mid 19th to early 20th century. Possibly made for a Dutch family.</p><p>The lion with the hockey stick looks like the Dutch lion with a lance. Belgium was once united with the Netherlands and Luxemburg.</p><p>The lion with the lance was first introduced as a symbol ca 1600 during the Dutch war of independence. It originally had a pileus or freedom hat on top of the lance, as a symbol that the people of the Low Countries were no longer &#039;slaves&#039; of the Habsburg dynasty.</p><p>Like on this carving which was originally on the back of a cart:</p><p><img src="http://museumrotterdam.blob.core.windows.net/lowres/32159_1.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>I think the two crests on the bench could be the crests of two families coming together through marriage. After independence several families in the Low Countries used the lion with lance freedom crest.</p><p>The wheel crest is used in varying colours by several Dutch families, like the Hoogendorp family crest, on the left:</p><p><img src="http://bentwoud.langharen.nl/images/stories/wildeveenen/fronton.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>The shells are a generic part of Baroque decorations imo.</p><p>There is more on Mechelen furniture in this PDF file, in Dutch but with nice photos. Scroll down to page 15 for the Historic Revival style:</p><p><a href="http://www.tento.be/sites/default/files/tijdschrift/pdf/OKV2000/Het%20Mechelse%20meubel%201500-2000.pdf" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.tento.be/sites/default/files/tijdschrift/pdf/OKV2000/Het%20Mechelse%20meubel%201500-2000.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.tento.be/sites/default/files/tijdschrift/pdf/OKV2000/Het Mechelse meubel 1500-2000.pdf</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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