The Amulet

Mr. Van de Werve, whose large fortune justified a lavish expenditure, was

accustomed to receive at his residence every month the principal gentlemen

of Antwerp, strangers as well as citizens. His love for art and science

induced him to bring together the best artists and the most noted literary

men of the day with the high-born, wealthy, and influential members of

society at Antwerp; and his house had become the rendezvous of all that

was excellent and celebrated in the city.

Nearly the whole of the anterior part of the house was occupied by a vast

hall, called the Ancestral Hall, because it was decorated by numberless

souvenirs of his illustrious family. The walls, for a certain distance

were sculptured in oak wood, so artistically designed, and so delicately

wrought, that at the first glance it looked like embroidery in various

colors. To produce this effect, the natural brown of the oak had been left

in some places. All the rest shone with gold and silver, which was

relieved by a beautiful scarlet, brilliant yellow, and the softest

sky-blue. The many small figures scattered over the ornaments were highly

gilded. From the wooden wainscot arose slight pillars, which, uniting in

the Gothic style, supported the heavy beams of the ceiling. Six of these

beams were visible: all were covered with highly colored sculptures. Their

decorations harmonized with, those of the wainscot, and seemed an

expansion of it, as though the architect wished the exquisite ornaments of

the beams of the ceiling to be considered a luxuriant verdure, springing

from trunks rooted in the oaken wainscot.

The escutcheon of the Van de Werve family, together with the families

allied to them, was artistically sculptured in the wood. The emblems and

devices were in profusion: lions, wild boars, eagles, ermines, bands and

crosses of gold, silver, green, and blue quartz, so numerous and

sparkling, that when the noonday sun penetrated into the hall, the eye

could with difficulty bear the dazzling magnificence.

The armorial bearings of the Van de Werves, Lords of Schilde, painted in

larger proportions than the others, were at the extremity of the hall.

They consisted of a black boar on a field of gold, quartered by three

chevrons of silver on black, surmounted by a helmet ornamented by

mantlings of black and gold, and above this was a boar's head.

Around these family arms shone a large number of escutcheons of smaller

size; among others, the coat of arms of the Wyneghem, the Van Immerseel,

the Van Wilre, the Van Mildert, the Van Coolput, the Van Bruloch, and the

Van Zymaer, families the most nearly related to that of Van de Werve.