Item

A German civic coat-of-arms (Wappen) enamel stickpin for the city of Frankfurt am Main. The shield-shaped badge head bears the Frankfurt eagle — a single-headed eagle displayed — on a ribbed red enamel field within a beaded border, the eagle rendered in raised gilt metal. It is mounted on a stickpin. The badge head measures approximately 1.5 cm wide by 2.0 cm tall; as the piece is shown against the Lobo Forensics scale in the photograph, this is a close-approximate reading. It shows honest age with the red enamel largely intact.

Design

The badge carries the arms of Frankfurt am Main: the Frankfurter Adler, a silver (white) eagle on a red field, one of the oldest and most famous civic coats of arms in Germany. On this enamelled pin the eagle is left in raised gilt metal against the red enamel — the usual convention on small heraldic pins, where the metal device stands for the eagle regardless of its true silver tincture. The eagle has been the emblem of Frankfurt since the Middle Ages, derived from the imperial eagle in recognition of the city's status as a Free Imperial City.

History

Frankfurt am Main was one of the most important cities of the Holy Roman Empire — the city where the German kings were elected and, from the 16th century, crowned emperor. Its eagle arms proclaimed that imperial connection, and the eagle-on-red became one of the most recognizable of all German civic symbols. Enamelled Wappen stickpins bearing the Frankfurt eagle were produced and worn as tokens of civic pride and as souvenirs of the city. This is a genuine and attractive example of German civic heraldry from one of the nation's historic cities.

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