 
In 1861, Johannes Baptista Rietstap published the first edition of his General Armorial. For the first time, hundreds of regional and national coats of arms from throughout Europe were collected in one work. It contained more than 100,000 descriptions. |
 
Beginning in 1903, Victor and Henri V. Rolland undertook the completion of a illustrated edition of the Rietstap General Armorial. They drew in black and white (using the heraldic codes of the time) the majority of the blazons cited in the original work. |
 
Lionel Sandoz, inheritor of a celebrated line of Swiss heraldic paintings, spent 9 years (from 1993 to 2002) colorizing all of the plates drawn by Rolland. Thanks to his work, more than 110,000 blazons are now consultable in their colorized versions. |
