About us

Bringing Coats of Arms Back to Life

Webaldic restores a name, a story, and value to objects of the past, thanks to its unique combination of technology and heraldic expertise.

Our story

It all began in 2020 with an idea from Evrard Van Zuylen, a medieval history enthusiast. He was inspired by his father, a collector of silverware, who often struggled to identify the coats of arms engraved on items in his collection. Identifying these symbols - essential for tracing an object’s history - was a complex and time-consuming process.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, his father would send photos via WhatsApp and ask Evrard to check for matches in various armorials or the Dictionnaire des figures héraldiques, but it was evident that this method was less than ideal and incredibly time-consuming.

Drawing on his experience developing tools for identifying trade marks and logos, Evrard came up with an automated solution to simplify and speed up the identification of coats of arms.

Our mission

Since 2020, Webaldic has grown into one of the world’s largest heraldic databases, with over 6 million coats of arms. Bringing together rare and unique sources collected across Europe and analysed using cutting-edge AI, the platform turns centuries-old heraldic symbols into stories you can explore at the click of a button.

Webaldic doesn’t just identify coats of arms - it brings forgotten histories back to life, modernises a field that has long remained static, and gives everyone the tools to discover and understand their heritage with confidence.

"Webaldic transforms heraldic research into a modern, fast, and universal experience to shed light on the past"

Webaldic constantly expands its collection by scouring Europe for rare and unpublished sources. The AI-based platform then analyses and compares millions of coats of arms, delivering accurate, fast and reliable matches to its users.

Our values

Integrity

Accuracy and respect for history, our clients, and the objects themselves.

Education

Sharing our knowledge and helping people understand heraldry.

Passion

A love for heritage and modern technologies.

Innovation

Using today’s tools to solve age-old problems.

Transparency

Bringing clarity and trust to a complex field.

Tenacity

Not leaving any stone unturned in the search for answers.

Why?

Why identify coats of arms?

Identifying a coat of arms allows you to uncover the history of a family or an object, authenticate and enhance a collection, and preserve unique cultural heritage. Whether for a private collector, an antique dealer, a museum, or a researcher, each coat of arms reveals forgotten stories and restores meaning to the past.

Where can you find these coats of arms?

All around you! Just look up - a coat of arms is never far away. In streets, on doors, on the façades of old buildings, they are everywhere around you!

Coats of arms appear on a wide range of objects, including silverware, jewellery, furniture, manuscripts, prints, historic buildings, as well as in ancient armorials and specialised publications. Often engraved, painted or embroidered, coats of arms are distinctive marks of identification for families, institutions, or the owners of objects.

How can Webaldic help you?

Webaldic offers an instant, relevant, precise, and user-friendly service to identify a huge number of coats of arms.

Accessible to everyone, our tools allow you to upload your own image of a coat of arms and find exact matches in our database, along with all the available related information (sources, dates and geographical coverage).

While developed to respond to a long-standing need, this highly advanced tool already provides further options in addition to simple searches for coats of arms:

Search for coats of arms by image, geography, name and date
Explore the geographic distribution of specific coats of arms or heraldic charges
Monitor the sale of items bearing specific coats of arms (feature currently under development and coming soon)

What Webaldic can offer you

Understand the history of an object or a family

Coats of arms are unique symbols connected to a family, individual, institution, or owner. Identifying them allows you to trace the origin, lineage and sometimes even the historical or social role of the person associated with the coat of arms.

Evaluate and authenticate objects

For collectors, antique dealers, museums or auction houses, being able to identify the coat of arms engraved on an object or artwork helps to verify its authenticity, establish provenance and better assess its value.

Preserve cultural heritage

Coats of arms are an integral part of historical and cultural heritage. Identifying them helps document and preserve this legacy, rendering accessible information which might otherwise be lost over time.

Unlock personal connection and value

For individuals, identifying a coat of arms on a family heirloom - or one discovered in a collection - can create a strong emotional connection to history and family identity.

Facilitate research and documentation

Coats of arms are also key to organising, comparing and cross-referencing historical information. Accurate identification simplifies academic research and the study of collections.

Meet the team

A team who has already worked together highly successfully for over 15 years, and who complement each other in their skill sets, working together like a well-oiled machine.

Evrard van Zuylen

AI specialist and medieval history enthusiast

With over ten years of experience in AI projects applied to natural language processing and image recognition in the field of intellectual property, Evrard created Webaldic by drawing on his technical skills and applying them to the niche world of heraldry.

Evrard is a member of the International Academy of Heraldry (AIH).

Emerald Dickson

Linguist and data management expert

Originally trained as a linguist, interpreter, and translator, Emerald has since gathered extensive experience in pan-European data collection and management projects and customer relations. She is passionate about history - particularly British and Bavarian - and art.

François Grandjean

Solution architect and passionate developer

With a background in management and over 20 years of practical experience building SaaS solutions, François combines business insight with technical expertise. As a full-stack developer, he creates data-matching and search solutions that genuinely make users' lives easier.

Harold de Walque

Strategy and business

An expert in business and finance, Harold turns innovative ideas into solid business models.