Antique Miniature Fasces Bundle Charm

A dainty antique charm, modeled in 14k rosy yellow gold and silver, to resemble a fasces— a bundle of wooden rods and an axe whose symbolic origins date back to ancient Greece. This esoteric symbol has a long, complex history. It represents liberty, unity, and justice, and has been an important symbol in French and American political history, but the fasces symbol was also adopted by Mussolini because of its socialist metaphor. This tiny fasces is made with sterling silver rods, that are bound together with a spiraling rosy-yellow gold strap. A gold axe is attached to the bundle, and the fasces hangs from an oval jump ring. This is a very rare charm, and an interesting object for someone interested in history or politics.

The symbol of the fasces is rooted in the idea that while an individual rod is easily broken, a bundle of rods is very hard to break. The fasces can be found on the seal of the US Senate, on the great seal of France, on the French coat of arms, on the backs of a US mercury dimes, and on the Emancipation memorial. From Aesop's fable of the bundle of sticks: "Individually, you can easily be conquered, but together, you are invincible. Union gives strength."

Read more about it here and here.

Materials

14k gold
Silver

Age

c. 1930

Dimensions

Total drop measures approx 22.2 mm (including jump ring); fasces measures approx 18.6 x 6.2 mm.