Where is this cross from?
(Puzzle 019)
So many clues, some of which we couldn't resolve at first, but we think we know what this is now.
But if we've missed anything, please let us know.
Mystery cross
(Click to enlarge)
Original piece
(Click to enlarge)
Alsace-Lorraine
Porte de la Craffe, Nancy (city gate)
Central detail of thistle with small cross
(Click to enlarge)
Nancy coat-of-arms
© Association Sportive Nancy-Lorraine (football club)
This cross necklace dates back around 100 years to the First World War. An American brought it from the area of Alsace-Lorraine, France, for his young sister in the United States.
The piece has no identification markings on the back, but on the front, in the centre, is a large thistle. The thistle is a symbol of Lorraine and features in the coat-of-arms of Nancy, the former capital of Lorraine.1
The overall shape of the pendant is of a Lorraine Cross. A similar cross is seen in the flag of the area's separatist movement, the Nationalforum Elsaß-Lothringen - Forum Nationaliste d'Alsace-Lorraine (National Forum of Alsace-Lorraine), the bilingual borderland between France and Germany. This flag happens to date from the First World War.
On our mystery cross, a tiny version of the same style is repeated on each of the six buds, and there's a seventh tiny cross on the left side of the thistle. It is interesting that there is just one cross on the thistle, and not two, which would give balance. So seven seems to be a significant number for this item.
'Seven' is an extremely popular number, and we feel that in this case, it is most likely in reference to the seven sacraments (rather than 7 virtues, 7 works of mercy, etc) because of the tiny cross on the left side of the thistle. Conventional thought is that a Roman soldier pierced the right side of Jesus when he was on the cross, so religious art usually shows the lance on the left side of the cross. From this wound flowed the blood, and it is supposed that is why the Eucharist cup is usually in the centre of artistic renditions of the seven sacraments.
However, we're making several presumptions here. If you recognise this cross or think we've missed anything, please enter whatever you know about it in box below.
| 1: | The motto adopted by Nancy is Non inultus premor (I cannot be touched with impunity). Accidently grasp a spikey thistle and you'll agree with that.
Scotland has a similar motto: Nemo me impune lacessit (No one wounds me with impunity) and the Scottish Royal coat of arms too incorporates the thistle. |
