In the coat of arms of Holland

The coat of arms

Picture and caption of this gable stone do not match for the full 100 percent. According to the text on the stone, this is the coat of arms of Holland, which consisted of a red lion on a golden field. But the depicted lion is the (golden) lion of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces, of which Holland was the most important and dominant region.
It is therefore no wonder that the lion of the Republic was copied from Holland, but it was given a crown and, according to the number of connected regions, a bundle with seven arrows (as a symbol of unity).
What makes the lion on the gable stone different is the bundle of arrows in the wrong paw and the missing sword.

It is not known who originally placed the stone and what exactly he had in mind: the region of Holland or the Republic. Or was it just the same for him?
In those days, it was not unusual to have one's political preferences or place of origin recorded on a gable stone..

Coat of arms of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces, originally in the colours of the coat of arms of Holland, reversed in 1664;

Golden lion on red

Heraldic description: Keel, with a golden lion,
azure tongued and nailed  and with a golden crown
holding raised in the right forepaw
a sword of silver with a hilt of gold
and in the left forepaw a bundle of seven arrows
of silver pointed and tied with a ribbon of gold.

From the history of Rechtstraat 35

1844: Jan Selissen dies at the address Rechtstraat 35.
The year 1844 had just begun. On 4 January of that year, 40-year-old shoemaker Joannes Franciscus Zelisen and 45-year-old bread baker Petrus Smeets stood before the registrar of births, deaths and marriages to report the death of their respective father and father-in-law, 80-year-old Jan Selissen, who was also called Zelisen according to the death certificate. Jan Selissen, married to Anna Pluimakers, had breathed his last breath on 2 January at half past four in the afternoon, in his house at Rechtstraat 239 (nowadays number 35). The death certificate mentions that Jan, who was considered exceptionally old, was "a messenger with the Regional Council of Limburg". Jan Selissen had also been a shopkeeper, as appears from the land register. He was the owner of the building where he had died. It is possible that he lived upstairs and had a shop downstairs.

The heirs of Jan Selissen were to sell the house at Rechtstraat in 1849 to the shopkeeper Hendrik Stols, who lived in Wycker Brugstraat.

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Relocation

It is, of course, a good thing that the gablestone has been elocated at its old address.
But there is a critical note: it has never become what itoriginal was; as if it actually does not harmonize wth its surroundings. 
You can see from the bottom blocks of stone of the window bars (they are less wide) that they were added later to extend the windows downwards.
In doing so, the gablestone must have been in the way and therefore had to disappear.
But not only that; the curving sides of the stone itself make it clear that it must have fitted exactly between curved pilasters. The downward-sloping gable pillars have also disappeared, because the lower facade was once adapted to the requirements of modern times.
The way it must have been is clearly visible on the facade of Hoogbrugstraat 52. On the first floor, two wider windows have been made next to each other. Atstreet levelthe space for these had to be converted to make room for two windows plus a door. This was done by applying bending gable uprights. In the thus created trapezoidal hole an according to shape and size  tailor-made gablestone fitted perfectly. Gablestone and facade form a perfect unity here, which has unfortunately got lost at Rechtstraat 35.

Look-alike?

Another gable stone with the Dutch coat of arms can be found across the street, at no. 64.
It is strange, two gable stones with the same image and name in the same street.
The explanation is that the one at no. 64 is not original, but was pulled out from under the road surface during road improvements in Limmel on the corner of Dolmanstraat / Populierweg. It had broken into two pieces and  badly damaged.
The original origin of the stone was unknown, so it was relocated in Rechtstraat, because it was assumed that it came from there. Wasn't there once a house that was called in the Dutch coat of arms?
This, however, turned out to be a wrong guess.
In hindsight, we know that the house with that name must have been no. 35. This was not known at the time, nor could it be seen, because the gable stone had been extracted from the house during a facelift of the facade, and for years it had been in the cellar completely unnoticed.
Finally, the stone was relocated in the front facade in 1986.

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