Width: 13cm (5.1in)
Provenance: Verly Collection
Silver over brass with original silver lace bullion boss to each arm. Applied with silver cross hatched escutcheon bearing the regimental number 26, over the axe and fasces, (the mobile kit for punishment kit of ancient Rome intended to invoke feelings of respect for authority), flanked by victors palms and surmounted by the civic crown (borrowed from antiquity as the decoration for saving the lives of fellow citizens), all beneath the banner scroll of the French Republic.
This type of officer’s gorget dates from 1803 when the demi-brigades d'Infanterie de Ligne that were created in 1796, were reorganised as line infantry regiments of three battalions each.
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In 1808 the 26th Line were in Portugal garrisoning the Algarve and were part of the division that overran a small Franco-Spanish force and stormed the city of Evora which was held by poorly armed townsmen and militia. The French butchered the Portuguese defenders and brutally sacked the town. They subsequently fought Sir Arthur Wellesley’s Anglo-Portuguese Peninsula Army at the battles of Battle of Roliça and Vimeiro the same year, and lost.