Measurements: 9cm (3.5in) x 7.4cm (in)
Silvered copper. Oval plate of the Commissaires de Surveillance sur les Ports et les Canaux, centrally impressed ‘SURVEILLANCE / SUR LES PORTS / ET RIVIÈRES’, beneath the Eye of Providence and over crossed oars and an anchor bound with ribbon, the whole contained within a border of reeds. 90 x 74 mm.
After the French Revolution the National Assembly established a new customs service, the Corps de Douanes. The Douanes was designed to look like and function as a military force, complete with its own uniform in ‘finance green’, which was first introduced in 1800. It enforced customs regulations, investigated smugglers, intercepted spies, operated its own courts and patrolled the Channel coast in the long (but ultimately unsuccessful) attempt to damage Britain economically by denying access to European markets. The service however was corrupt and open to bribes. In 1809 prisoner-of-war Royal Navy Midshipman Charles Hare was able to buy a Douanes uniform and wear it in his successful escape from in Sarre Libre penal fortress to his home in Lincolnshire. National Maritime Museum (ZBA9975) and (ZBA9976).
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Later Napoleon transformed the Douanes into an imperial directorate and deployed as a security force against coastal raids. After heavy losses in 1812, it was reformed into infantry, artillery, and cavalry units, such as the 2e Régiment des Douanes Impériales. As such it served in several major defensive actions across Europe, particularly during the retreat of the Grande Armée. The design for the present shoulder belt plate is illustrated in Florange, C. (1925), ’Les messageries et les postes, les ponts et chaussées’ (fig. 406, page 84) marking out the present example as a rare survival from France’s Consulate period (1799-1804).