Set Of 5 Revolutionary Military Buttons In Its Case.

Decor with lictor beam. One of them is smaller. Brass. The box is made of dark wood with a chiselled vegetal decoration in brass on the lid. 18th century period. Dimensions: Box: 20 x 6.8 cm Button diameter: 2.8 cm and the smallest 2.5 cm. Very good state. —--- “The central part of the motif represents bundles formed by the assembly of long and thin branches tied around an ax by straps. The fasces are covered with a shield on which the initials RF (French Republic) are engraved. Oak and olive branches surround the design. The oak symbolizes justice, the olive tree peace. The bundles are made by assembling long, thin branches tied around an ax with straps. In ancient Rome, these fasces were worn by lictors, officers in the service of the Magistrates and whose sentences they executed. The French Revolution reinterpreted this symbol: the beam now represents the union and strength of French citizens united to defend Liberty. In 1790, the Constituent Assembly imposed its "antique beams" as the new emblem of France. At the fall of the Monarchy, the lictor's fasces became one of the symbols of the "one and indivisible" French Republic (like a fasces). It is repeated on the seal of the 1st Republic then on that of the 2nd Republic, still in use today. In 1913, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs adopted for diplomatic and consular posts abroad an emblem inspired by a model appearing on the hilts and buttons of diplomatic uniforms. The design represents a bundle of lictors surmounted by an ax and covered with a shield on which the initials RF (French Republic) are engraved, oak and olive branches surround the motif. The oak symbolizes justice, the olive tree peace. The birth and development of the United Nations reinforced the need to symbolize the French Republic with an emblem. Indeed, when the United Nations Assembly Hall was built in New York, each country had to be represented by a seal. In 1953, a commission met at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to define the emblem of France to appear in the United Nations Assembly Hall in New York. The commission adopted the project of the artist Robert Louis, which reads as follows: "azure with a lictor's beam placed in pale, on two branches of oak and olive, crossed in saltire, all of gold, bound by a ribbon of the same, charged with the motto in letters of sand Liberté-Egalité-Fraternité”. President Giscard d'Estaing took up this motif - the lictor's fasces surmounted by the ax and surrounded by a wreath of laurels - as his personal emblem.