Fleur De Lys

FLEUR DE LYS - vintage, unique and rare plate

Exceptional beautiful vintage plate in NEW condition
Artistically handcrafted with so much details
One of a kind.

Diameter = 15 cm x 15 cm

FREE DELIVERY anywhere, worldwide
(considering the shipping logistic/cost of its volume/heavy weight/secure packaging)

History and meaning: The fleur-de-lys means "lily" that is used as a decorative design or motif. Many of the Catholic saints of France, particularly St. Joseph, are depicted with a lily. Since France is a historically Catholic nation, the fleur-de-lys became "at one and the same time, religious, political, dynastic, artistic, emblematic, and symbolic", especially in French heraldry.

While the fleur-de-lys has appeared on countless European coats of arms and flags over the centuries, it is particularly associated with the French monarchy in a historical context, and continues to appear in the arms of the King of Spain (from the French House of Bourbon) and the Grand Duke of Luxembourg and members of the House of Bourbon. It remains an enduring symbol of France which appears on French postage stamps, although it has never been adopted officially by any of the French republics. According to French historian Georges Duby, the three petals represent the three medieval social estates: the commoners, the nobility, and the clergy.

It remains unclear where the fleur-de-lys originated, though it has retained an association with French nobility. It is widely used in French city emblems as in the coat of arms of the city of Lille, Saint-Denis, Brest, Clermont-Ferrand, Boulogne-Billancourt and Calais. Some cities that had been particularly faithful to the French Crown were awarded a heraldic augmentation of two or three fleurs-de-lys on the chief of their coat of arms; such cities include Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Reims, Le Havre, Angers, Le Mans, Aix-en-Provence, Tours, Limoges, Amiens, Orléans, Rouen, Argenteuil, Poitiers, Chartres and Laon among others.

The fleur-de-lys was the symbol of Île-de-France, the core of the French kingdom. It has appeared on the coat-of-arms of other historical provinces of France including Burgundy, Anjou, Picardy, Berry, Orléanais, Bourbonnais, Maine, Touraine, Artois, Dauphiné, Saintonge and the County of La Marche. Many of the current French departments use the symbol on their coats-of-arms to express this heritage.