French WWII Marshal Pétain Vichy French Trumpet Banner

A rare surviving item from the Vichy France period, this double-sided, beautifully embroidered trumpet banner measures approximately 36cm x 30cm, with an extended silver fringe on three sides and three attachment tapes for fitting to a trumpet. The central embroidery features axe heads in the French national colours with the letters ‘EF’. The banner is free from moth damage.

Henri Philippe Pétain (born April 1856, died July 1951), known as the “Lion of Verdun”, was a celebrated hero of France and a Marshal of France at the close of the First World War. Following the fall of France in 1940, Pétain was appointed President of the Military Council and became leader of Vichy France, operating under the control of the German military administration. He was tried and convicted of treason after the war and sentenced to death, though this was commuted to life imprisonment due to his age and WWI service.

The Garde du Maréchal was Pétain’s personal bodyguard, numbering around 1,000 specially selected former NCOs with distinguished war records. They wore the horizon blue uniform of the First World War and a collar badge identical in design to the emblem embroidered on this trumpet banner.