Italy, Kingdom. A National Fascist Youth Organization (ONB) Award Medal

(Opera Nazionale Balilla). In bronze, obverse illustrating a nude man with his left arm raised in a Fascist salute, seven repeating images of the man to his left, a roaring lion at the far left, reverse illustrating a stylized male figure at the top, inscribed in Art Deco style text "OPERA NAZIONALE BALILLA", the blades of large fasces framing a blank tablet in the centre below, measuring 32 mm in diameter, spotting and discolourating, contact marks, original ribbon, very fine.

Footnote: The Opera Nazionale Balilla (ONB) was an Italian Fascist youth organization functioning between 1926 and 1937, when it was absorbed into the Gioventù Italiana del Littorio (GIL), a youth section of the National Fascist Party. It takes its name from Balilla, the nickname of Giovan Battista Perasso, a Genoese boy who, according to local legend, started the revolt of 1746 against the Habsburg forces that occupied the city in the War of the Austrian Succession. Perasso was chosen as the inspiration for his supposed age and revolutionary activity, while his presence in the fight against Austria reflected the irredentist stance taken by early Fascism, and Italy's victories in the First World War.