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  Ciskei Defence Force Awards

  By archie777 · Posted 54 minutes ago

  Marco & Megan    Look at this Sandile Decoration/Medal   No records could be found
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  South African Civil Awards for Bravery

  By archie777 · Posted 1 hour ago

  The Woltemade Decoration for Bravery (Silver)   This deciration is the lesser of two classes of a South African civil decoration for acts of bravery. It replaced the King's Medal for Bravery, Silver and Queen's Medal for Bravery, Silver, the award of which was discontinued in South Africa in 1961 
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  South African Special Forces (Recces)

  By archie777 · Posted 1 hour ago

  Different SA Special Forces tracksuit badges
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  South African Civil Awards for Bravery

  By archie777 · Posted 2 hours ago

  The Woltemade Decoration for Bravery (Gold)   This decoration is the senior of two classes of a South African civil decoration for acts of bravery. It replaced the Union of South Africa King's Medal for Bravery, Gold and Union of South Africa Queen's Medal for Bravery, Gold, the award of which had been discontinued in 1952 and 1961 respectively.
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  Question about the Order of Ismail/Nishan al-Ismail

  By Rusty Greaves · Posted 2 hours ago

  Below is a miniature Order of Ismail offered in a Feb 25, 2024 auction by La Galerie Numismatique (Lot 0110), listed on the liveauctioneers website (https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/170362583_order-of-ismail). This mini is identified as measuring  35 x 21 mm, and the suspension ring and ribbon are stated to be original. The description does claim this is in “mint” condition. However, it is clear from the photo that there is damage to the enamel of the central boss with the inscription “Ismail”. It is unclear whether the lighter blue on parts of the enamel on this boss is an effect of the original enamel or some form of repair. The description also calls this “a spectacular very large size badge”. The width is similar to that of the other Order of Ismail minis of comparable design. However, the height (presumably to the most superior portion of the star within the crescent) is about 4mm taller than the only 2 examples I have been able to accurately measure and the few height measurement provided for other Ismail minis.        Moderate-resolution image of the obverse of the La Galerie Numismatique miniature Orde of Ismail from the liveauctioneers website. This shows well the blue and red enamel on the crown suspension element. Both this image and that below of the reverse can be zoomed for additional detail.        Moderate-resolution photo of the reverse of the same miniature order of Ismail from the liveauctioneers website.   I cannot tell from the above photos whether all of this miniature is silver or if there are some gold/plated elements. However, it appears this example is all silver (the description does not mention any gold or gilt). On most examples, the crown suspension device is gold or plated, but that does not appear to be the case with the above badge. The “Ismail” inscription looks to be silver on this piece as well rather than gold. Additionally, the borders and floral elements on this mini look to be silver and not gold as on most other examples I have seen. A low-resolution image of the Dr. James Ferguson Lees’ mini (from a 22 June, 2021 auction by Woolley and Wallace, archived on the Drouot Digital website, shown in the 4th photo pf my post on this thread of 23 September, 2021) also appears to show an all silver miniature. Other similarities between the La Galerie Numismatique mini and the Dr. Ferguson Lees badge are described below).    Another significant difference from most other miniature badges is the very abbreviated form of the red bands on the wreath. On the above example, these bands are simple Xs that do not wrap completely around the wreath or have well-defined boundaries (gold on other minis but apparently silver on this badge). The Dr. Ferguson Lees example may have this same form, but the photo of that mini is not high-enough resolution to confirm that suspicion. The margins of the rayed embellishment on this La Galerie Numismatique mini exhibits “extra” silver outlining the rays (especially noticeable at the distal ends of the shortest rays and margins of the cutouts in the embellishment.           Above are 3 additional lower-resolution images of this same miniature (2 photos of the obverse and 1 of the reverse) from a part of the La Galerie Numismatique website that is no longer available. The obverse images do show that the floral elements on the star arms appear to be silver as is the inscription of "Ismail" on the central boss. They do not show well the red and blue enamel on the crown suspension device.    There are also several differences in the crown suspension device compared with other miniature examples (in addition to the potentially taller height of the crown element). A quite unusual aspect of this miniature is the enamel on the crown suspension. The red enamel is visible in two spaces between the arches (and possibly in each lateral portion although the photo does not make that clear) that may be intended to represent velvet. There also is blue enamel on two round ornamental features of the band around the head opening at the inferior portion. Almost all other examples I have seen photos of don’t have any enamel on the crown suspension. The only exceptions are, again, the miniature of Dr. Ferguson Lees from a 22 June, 2021 auction by Woolley and Wallace, shown in my post on this thread of 23 September, 2021 (4th photo) and the mini Owain illustrated here on GMIC in his post of 11 December, 2017 (1st phot 2nd from R on the upper row) in the thread “Miniature of the Middle East& Arab World that he started on 6 December, 2017. Also except for the Dr. Ferguson Lees mini and Owain’s, all the other crown suspensions shown in good-high resolution images have a different connection to the body of the miniature medal. They connect to the rayed embellishment, not the superior arm as on this example (and the Ferguson Lees mini and Owain’s). One possible explanation is that this mini may have been made by Tewfik Bichay. Although no images of the reverse of either the neck badge or breast star are provided in the listing of the Dr. Ferguson Lees awards, the wreath element in both the neck badge and breast star of the Dr. Ferguson Lee full0-sized awards exhibit the configuration of fruit dots, form and color of the green enamel, and form of the red bands around the wreath that appear distinctive of Tewfik Bichay’s design and execution on pieces with his maker’s hallmark. There are some wreaths of this form on pieces marked with the Lattes name on the reverse. They either represent recent “repairs” that incorporate a Bichay wreath on pieces that are otherwise the product of the Lattes design (there is one sash or neck badge I have documented on this thread that has the a “Bichay-style” wreath that appears oversized on an otherwise probable Lattes badge, see my pedantry about this ). Of course, as the chief artisan in the Lattes workshop, Bichay may have altered the wreath design slightly form it’s original form while still working for Lattes. The intact set of Dr. Ferguson Lees awards offered in the Woolley and Wallace 2021 auction (including award brevets) makes that miniature the only example of an Order of Ismail mini I have seen in my online research that is associated with its original owner. It is reasonable to infer that he may have obtained his complete set of miniature medals contemporaneously with the full-sized awards. Circumstantially, if his 3rd Class Commander award was made by Bichay, it makes the Bichay workshop a reasonable suspect to have slightly modified the more common forms of the miniature Order of Ismail (see the other examples illustrated on this thread in my posts of: 5 December 2017; 10 November, 2018 showing 2 minis in the 1st image; 1 November, 2019 showing 2 minis in the 4th photo; 12 February, 2020showing the obverse & reverse of a mini; 23 March, 2020, Owain’s post of 20 April 2020 showing 2 minis in obverse & reverse views; my post of 22 April 2020 in the 2nd image; Lars post of 23 April 2020 of 2 minis; and my post of 31 October 2020 showing Owain’s illustration from his article (Raw-Rees, Owain, 2018. Egypt, King Farouk and his dress miniatures. Miniature Medals World, No. 130, March) featuring 3 special mini designs of King Farouk, showing one similar Ismail mini in the 2nd-to-last photo).