Hello everyone. I’m not terribly experienced with coats arms, so I’m hoping someone will be able to help me find out a little more information from a hand-painted family crest that has been passed down in my family.

I’ve attached a jpeg of the scanned image, but I’ll describe it briefly:

The shield’s field is blue and there is an odd image of something that looks like what could be a fancy gold colored cup (grail/goblet-like) with a four streams of silver (water maybe) pouring into it from a black dot (maybe its supposed to be a hole) just above it. It also gives the impression of a fountain.

The crest itself is a golden symbol that looks similar to a tall 4 with another line running horizontally through the leg of the four (see image). It is perched atop a silver helmet with blue and white wings springing up from the base to frame the 4 shape.

1588 is written across the upper part of the paper (split into 15 and 88 on either side of the crest).

Below the shield, in neat German calligraphy, is written:

Gutwasser ~
N.W. Böhmen b. Schneeberg.

My last (and only that I know of so far, I cannot locate any other members of her family) Gutwasser relative was my great great great grandmother whose maiden name was Anna Marie Gutwasser. She lived from 1849 to 1902 and I believe this framed coat of arms dates from about that time period. My research shows she was born in Mühlhausen, Thüringen, Prussia/Germany and immigrated to the United States in 1857.

I find this coat of arms to be very curious, and would like to ask anyone with experience with German heraldry, exactly what the text mentioned above means. Does the date 1588 apply to origins of the name Gutwasser or the city of Schneeberg? I know there are many cities, towns and villages named Gutwasser in Prussia (now Germany, Austria, etc.), could this maybe be a reference to a town named Gutwasser (maybe one my Gutwasser relatives were named after or vice versa)?

I’ve been researching the location of Schneebergs that were once Prussian (most of Bohemia is now in Austria) but have found nothing conclusive yet. There are a couple of prospects, but I can’t make any further suggestion without further research.

I would like it very much if anyone with experience in Germanic heraldry could possibly help me identify the symbols in this coat of arms and help me track down more information about this coat of arms and where it came from. As I’ve said, I’m not really experienced with heraldry of any kind, so I would be open to any suggestions of resources which I could use to identify when this coat of arms came to be (is there an index of dates and names granted crests in Bohemia, Prussia?)

If there is anything further, or any one has any questions, please leave a post. I will try and attach a decent sized jpeg of the Gutwasser coat of arms; please let me know if it doesn’t come through.

Thanks for your time. I haven’t come across anyone else researching the Gutwassers and fear I am treading in unexplored waters, so I’m looking forward to figuring out this little enigma in my genealogy research.