The “Nec Timide Nec Tarde” Reverso

A steel Reverso with a quartered shield alternating navy fields charged with gold rampant lions and red fields each charged with three silver bells, above a scrolled motto banner reading “NEC TIMIDE NEC TARDE” — roughly, “neither timidly nor slowly.” It closely echoes the better-documented Latin motto “Nec temere, nec timide” (“neither rashly nor timidly”), used historically by the town of Oswestry, the city of Gdańsk, and several British armigerous families including Bailey and Forbes — though none of those known arms match this specific lion-and-bell quartering, so the exact institution behind this version remains unconfirmed. One of nine 1930s Reversos published together on page 78 of a Jaeger-LeCoultre heritage volume, “In Praise of Craftsmanship.”