House marker

Searching for removed stones to repurpose, the Friends of Maastricht Gable stones came across this stone in an old stock list of the Bonnefanten museum with the following description: gable stone with 4 S AE (no photo).

It was in their external depository. It turned out to be an Ardennes marble stone broken into several pieces.
It required a lot of tinkering to get it whole again, but that was in good hands with sculptor Tycho Flore. So was the gilding with gold leaf.

In the centre of the stone a dock (now broken off) is anchored with lead that we left in place because of its authenticity. So something has been attached to that, but what? Unfortunately, the provenance of the stone is unknown and also who is behind that representation. It is clear, however, that this stone qualifies as a house marker. It is a somewhat misleading name, because house does not mean a building, but stands for family, such as the Orange family in House of Orange. Such a marker was used to indicate: this belongs to our family / belongs to me. It could therefore be compared to a coat of arms or you could also call it an initial which could easily be scratched in with simple dashes even by an illiterate person. In this case the image is a lot more complicated in form with those added initials. Given the execution in marble and the very unusual size of 50x35x5 cm, it is probably something that belonged to a noble family. Part of an ornament perhaps?

Since it is unknown where the stone originally belonged, a foster facade was sought. It became St. Pieterstraat 46, mainly because the opportunity presented itself. The house was in scaffolding due to renovation and the unworked block of marl in the front facade more or less invited us to replace it with a "real" gable stone on a street where several gable stones can be admired.