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Despite having a clear regulation, there have been some acceptance by the authorities for an alternative variety of ribbon bar for the collar and 1st class: In relation to Eric Bush's models, keep in mind that most of his inventory related to Venezuela were part of the liquidation after NS Meyer closed operations, therefore not all pieces “circulated” … There are several that could be samples or proposals from the manufacturer or even rejected parts from the recipient (Gov. of Venezuela) and I believe this is the case with the white band devices… I bought form Erick some of his pieces and they are actually white instead of silver, but I have never seen any of these in sets of the Order officially delivered. Same with the “double bordered rosette” (RF32 & RF111d) this is the rosette for the 4th class but comes without any wings as showed in RFR34. About the sizes, again was very much up to de manufacture choice, early rosette where bigger than modern ones, but no as small as the RF111a of 6mm, this was probably use in miniature and not as lapel rosette. Regarding the color scheme for the "early" version (RF112) I also have it and is 100% orange instead of red… I don’t believe is Venezuelan and if it is maybe a proposal for the Army Cross… how knows.

Hello friends Sorry for the delay in answering but I’ve been traveling a lot lately for work. Regarding the ribbon bars there have been a lot of confusion. The Order was created in 1881 comprising: • Medal (single version for all classes) • Breast Star (two version, one for 1st and 2nd and other for 3rd class) • Rosette (single version for all classes) The first big reform was in 1922, and among the modifications we can found: • Introduction of the Collar • Enlarge the diameter of the medal from 35mm to 52mm • A different Breast Star for each of the first 3 classes • Introduction of a unique ribbon bar for each class (according to the image) But no reference was included regarding the Rosette since a single version (same design) remain for all classes and even though was quite common to find them, no reference on the Miniature and its characteristics was introduced in the regulation. it would not be until 2006 that the order was again reform and for the first time in more than a 100 year that the miniature was include together with separate version for rosette according to each class. This absence of regulation, during that much time made that the definition of the designs for the rosettes and miniatures was up to the criteria of the manufacturers resulting is a great deal of versions and that’s the reason for the confusion, but this how it supposed to be:

Hi Dusty… Thanks for good words regarding the page, an invitation for sure to continue with the work… I really appreciated! Inventorying differences in the designs its quite a challenge, mainly because of inconsistencies within the same contractor and the “model” you refer to is a perfect example. Bolivar with arm came from a paint of the Peruvian artist Gil de Castro which Bolivar himself considered to be the most accurate version of him, this historical fact made that image the standard representation of Bolivar for many decades and therefore was an obvious choice for some contractor’s Having that said, the angle and posture of Bolivar in the paint represented a technical difficulty to engrave the Die and the final result was not very attractive in comparison with other versions of the bust that were easier to accomplish and with a better final result. Only French subcontractor and earlier versions of N.S. Meyer (look to the right) chose this bust, so is fair to said that it is a version not commonly found. Every single version of this model that I've seen have a French hallmark but with different manufacture punch (unfortunately unrecognizable), but many of them were commercialize by Fayolle Pouteau, I suppose with some kind of subcontractor arrangement. Regarding the “arm position”, I don’t trust it as a valid variant identifier basically because the bust is an independent strike planchet that is attached to the flat oval. But the hole piece goes to the breast star (larger space) and for the medal, since the blue enable ring is a smaller frame, a hand cut was required in the bottom for perfect fitting and that the reason for the difference. For this type of bust I prefer use as identifier, the number and model of stars in the epaulettes, the angle of the epaulettes, the number of buttons in each side of the uniform (3 or 4) or the floral arrangement in the chest. I will write soon about rosettes, miniatures and ribbons bar of the Order… regards to all! Michael

Dear friends… let me begin by thank you all for showing that much interest in trying to elaborate some collective understanding regarding the order and I’m so glad that my web page (Condecoracionesdevenezuela.com) come handy… although I’m still in debt with a decent translation of the content… There are a many aspect to comment but let me begin by addressing the left right discussion which starter this post. Since 1854 there are 14 government decrees that regulates the all versions of the Order, some of them with great level of details in design matters but none of them address the left or right facing of the bust. In theory, the Bolívar's painting chosen as inspiration to reproduce his bust on the medal, looked to the right, so when the medal of distinction of the bust of the liberator was created in 1854, the local manufacture made it facing right With the institution of the Order after the reform of 1881 and the introduction of its 5 classes several European manufactures were commissioned to produce it but with no clear indication regarding the bust, nevertheless most of Bolivar engravings available at that time had bolivar looking to the right (and probably delivered to the manufacturer as a sample) therefore most of them, I would say more than 90% of them, have a right facing bust which set the standard even until modern days: Right facing manufactures Boullanger (Paris); La Royale (Rio); Gathmann (Caracas); Cravanzola (Roma); Godet (Berlin); Lemaitre (Paris); Meyer (New York); Russell Uniforms (New York); Distintivos Nacionales (Caracas); Picard (Caracas); Bacqueville (Paris); Wolfers (Brussels); JG Amme (Caracas); Carlman (Stockholm) Left facing manufactures Fayolle-Pouteau (Paris) + 2 unknow French manufactures and 1 probably German My web page currently does not include any reference to this topic but I will write about it, just to clarify the reference made to the pre 1922 modification and that includes a right facing bust for illustration, refers only to the breast star design, before 1922 1rs and 2nd class use the same star and only after 1922 a new “model” was introduce to assign one particular design for each class. Lars, wonderful examples! both right facing miniatures belong to the same manufacture officially classify as a French unknow manufacture but very likely to be Diets Joaillier (26, Rue Vivienne, Paris) and the manufacture timeframe should be between 1900 and 1919 In some day I will address some of the other topic…