Slovenian Modra Carved Wood Coat of Arms. Gilt wood in the form of a two-headed Byzantium eagle, with a crown balanced between its two heads, wings folded against its sides. 

Condition: Commensurate with age. 

Size: 22 1/4 x 14 1/2 x 2 in. 

#2544 . 

Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings Armory, the best-known branch of heraldry, concerns the design and transmission of heraldic achievement. The armorial bearings usually includes a coat of arms on a shield, helmet and crest. Although the use of various devices to signify individuals and groups goes back to antiquity, both the form and use of such devices varied widely, as the concept of regular, hereditary designs, constituting the distinguishing feature of heraldry, did not develop until the High Middle Ages. The perceived beauty and pageantry of heraldic designs allowed them to survive the gradual abandonment of armor on the battlefield during the 17th Century, and in modern times individuals, public and private organizations, corporations, cities, towns, regions, and entire countries have used heraldry and its conventions to symbolize their heritage, achievements, and aspirations.

The double-headed eagle is an iconographic symbol originating in the Bronze Age, with the motif found in Mycenaean Greece and in the Ancient Near East, especially in Mesopotamian and Hittite iconography. It re-appeared prominently during the High Middle Ages, being adopted by the Palaiologos dynasty of the Byzantine Empire. Islamic Spanish, French, and Serbian variants appeared around this time as well. From the 13th Century onward it became even more widespread, and was used by the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum and the Mamluk Sultanate within the Islamic world and within the Christian world by the Holy Roman Empire, Albania and Russia, representing an augmentation of the (single-headed) eagle or Aquila associated with the Earlier Roman Empire. 

An exhaustive study of this coat of arms suggests that it is Slovenian, from the city of Modra, based on the eagles with the crown in between them and the horizontal stripes on the right side of the escutcheon.

Commensurate with age.