The arms of France [graphic]

"The centre of the design is an oval enclosed in a buckled garter, inscribed 'The Sun of the French Constitution', containing the 'Arms of France': a guillotine, dripping with blood, and irradiated by a large sun, partly below the horizon. The supporters are an important part of the design: dexter, a seated ape; sinister, a very rampant tiger; each holds a tricolour flag fringed with gold, and inscribed respectively 'Atheism', 'Desolation'. The ape wears a tricolour sash and a large bonnet rouge, forming a fool's cap, trimmed with bells and tricolour cockade. He sits on two thick volumes: 'Rosseau' [sic] and 'Voltaire', beneath which is a pamphlet: 'Tom Paine' [see BMSat 9240]. The crest is a boar. From the garter hangs an oval medallion or cameo, with the head of Bonaparte, cadaverous and sinister, in profile to the left., and having the inscription: 'And God made Buonapartè, and rested from his labours'; 'Vide French Bishops Address to the First Consul 1803'. The medallion has a background of foliage with pendent fleurs-de-lis. Below the medallion is an oval tablet with the inscription: 'Gallic Fraternity. \ - Spain, Inchain'd - \ - Holland, Plunder'd, - \ - Switzerland, Ruin'd; - \ - Italy, Destroy'd. - \ France, in Slavery.' Scrolls issuing from this extend symmetrically across the design, and form a base for the supporters; inscription : 'Invasion - Plunder \ And Destruction.' The Arms have an elaborate setting or background: Below are victims of the guillotine - piles of bleeding heads with a scroll: 'Death is an eternal Sleep'. On the left are the decollated heads of women and infants with a rosary and open book: 'Ave Maria'. These heads are comparatively few, and behind them ls a heavily barred dungeon window flanked by shackles and inscribed 'Toussaint'. On the r. the heads are much more numerous, and form a pile which balances the window. The foreground heads include a bishop, from whom a mitre has fallen, and a turbaned Moslem (cf. BMSat 10062). Above, the background is a piece of drapery framed by festooned tricolour curtains which form a border to the design. On the red stripes of the tricolour are the names of 'French Worthies'. Upper margin: (l.) 'Robespierre', 'Marat', 'Fouché', (r.) 'Buonaparte', 'Talleyrand', 'Cambaceres'. Side margins (l.): 'Barras Massena', 'Reubell', 'Rapp', 'Mengaud', 'Lepaux', 'Thibaudeau', 'Boisy [sic] d'Anglas'; (r.) 'Sieyès', 'Barrere', 'Tallien', 'Carnot', 'Lannes', 'Jambon' [sic] 'St André', 'Menou', 'Junot'."--British Museum online catalogue