Budapest arms & colours. Throughout the centuries (Budapest, 1998)

and, finally, that the idea of the statehood of our country should be truly and aptly conveyed".

6 Therefore, they commissioned a Sub-committee with the creation of the new coat of arms and banner, who, in turn, invited the most noted and outstanding scholars of the country to cooperate: Albert Nyáry, Flóris Römer, Iván Nagy and Árpád Horváth. With the opinions of these experts in view, the Subcommittee commissioned heraldic painter Lajos Friedrich and heraldic collector Gusztáv Altenburger

8 to make the designs.

9 According to Lajos Friedrich's first design /see Plate IV/, the straight escutcheon, divided into two by a wavy silver fesse, had the arms of Buda in its — heraldically distinguished — upper field, that of Pest in the lower field. However, the design failed to include in the arms of Buda the second gate, representing Óbuda — in fact, in accordance with a decision of the experts and then the Committee of Thirty-four.

10 In his next design, Friedrich added two supporters to the escutcheon: the lion, from the medieval coat of arms of Buda, and the griffin, from that of Pest. /Plate V./ Gusztáv Altenburger's design did include the second gate, it was, however, pronounced somewhat „tumultuous" by the Subcommittee. Similarly to Friedrich's design, he combined the colours of Buda and Pest to create a banner for the capital. /Plate VI./ The General Assembly of the Capital made a rather autonomous decision about the designs submitted to them: they had the arms of the city of Pest placed in the upper field, and chose the colours of Pest to become the banner of the capital, omitting the colours of Buda entirely /see plates VIL, VIII./. The reason for ignoring the recommendations of the Experts' Subcommittee lay in the numerical majority of the Representatives of Pest in both the General Assembly and the Committee of Thirty-four. They had a distinct preference for the dynamically developing Pest to the quiet Buda.