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What do Lafite’s 5 arrows mean?
On August 8, 1868, at the auction of the former owner of Lafite, the Rothschild family purchased the Lafite estate at an astonishing price of 4.5 million francs at the time, and has owned and operated it to this day. Since then, Lafite’s wine label The icon of “five arrows” appeared on the upper change, so what is the origin of this icon?
Logo
From September 2013, Lafite Rothschild Group’s selected series of products will use the Group’s Five Arrows logo in the Chinese mainland market. In order to better reflect the brand image and pursue the essence of “excellence, delicacy and elegance”, the implementation of the unified logo will make it easier for consumers to identify the products of Lafite Rothschild Group.
The logo unifies all the products of the selected series, including the legendary series-Légende, the legendary series-Saga, the collection series-Réserve Spéciale monk series-Sélection Prestige. The circular logo of the original selection on the label will be replaced by the Five Arrows logo of the Lafite Rothschild group.
The group logo is embedded with the five arrows family emblem representing the Rothschild family, which symbolizes the spirit of unity and solidarity, and is a symbol and guarantee of quality. The letter “R” is taken from the prefix of “Rothschild”, and the word “Lafite” is added, which is the original appearance of the group at the beginning of its establishment.
After the unified logo, the overall visual design of the selected series of wine labels will continue to use the original color scheme and style, and the legend and legend series will be marked with the signature of “selected series” at the bottom of the wine label.
The history of “Five Arrows”
The Rothschild family grew up in Frankfurt in the early 19th century. Mayer Rothschild, a Jew, established a financial foundation by building relationships with princes and nobles. His five sons opened banks in Frankfurt, London, Paris, Vienna, Naples, all with success. Established the largest financial kingdom in the world at that time.
Rothschild’s family motto attaches great importance to the teaching of family unity, and the Jewish custom, arrows represent their sons, so we can see the “five arrows” icon of the Rothschild family on the wine label of Lafite.
Why do the five arrows cross each other? The family symbol of the “five arrows” originates from a story in the “Quotations of Kings and Generals” written by the Greek historian Plutarch in the second century AD:
King Scilurus, on his deathbed, summoned 80 of his sons to the sickbed, and gave each of them a bundle of arrows to be broken. Seeing that no one could do anything, he dismantled one of the bundles and broke the arrows one by one with ease. He told his sons: “Together, no one is invincible; to fight alone, to be vulnerable.”
Moritz Oppenheim, the private painter of the Rothschild family, painted an oil painting on this subject, which was Meyer’s five sons. And this painting reveals the symbolic meaning of “five arrows”, that is, “five arrows” symbolize Mayer’s five sons, which is in line with the ancestral motto of the Rothschild family: “Unity, Integrity, Diligence”.
The strength of the family comes from unity. One arrow is easy to be broken, and five arrows are not easily broken when held together, and the “R” in the middle is the first letter of Rothschild.
A Rothschild letter also says: “As long as you brothers are held together, no bank in the world can compete with you, harm you, or profit from you. Together you will have more than any other bank in the world. A bank needs a lot of power.”
