JapanX Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 (edited) Let’s have a little talk about this mysterious “Merit Medal”. This so-called Chinese Republic Merit Medal which is also known as Merit Medal of the Republic Silver Merit Medal of the Republic Medal for Military Merit Original inscription on the medal obverse (this could be translated as “Medal of the Republic of China”) Edited April 26, 2012 by JapanX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanX Posted April 26, 2012 Author Share Posted April 26, 2012 (edited) Most likely this medal was created on April 9, 1913 in four classes. At least according to the only (?) published source about this decoration – “Orden aus aller Welt Sammlung Tammann 80. Auktion Katalog, 4-5 November 2008, p.178”. In turn compilers of this catalogue used “The China Year Book, Chicago 1916”, “The China Year Book, Chicago 1920” and “Who’s Who in China, 3rd edition, Shanghai, 1925”. Since this medal wasn’t listed in “The China Year Book of 1920” they concluded that: “It seems that it was distributed after that year by only Sun Yat-sen’s Government in Canton. The maker’s name and the date are indeed typical for decorations by the Canton Government”. There, that’s all we have. Now let’s take a look at different classes and variations of this interesting medal. Since we don’t have any precise information about design of different classes of this medal I think it will be a good idea to avoid naïve (and possibly incorrect) labeling. That’s why instead of class I will use the word variation. Edited April 26, 2012 by JapanX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanX Posted April 26, 2012 Author Share Posted April 26, 2012 Variation A Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanX Posted April 26, 2012 Author Share Posted April 26, 2012 Variation B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanX Posted April 26, 2012 Author Share Posted April 26, 2012 (edited) Marked specimen on the left was described in Tammann 2008 catalogue as “2nd class” and catalogue creators stated that “2nd class was for lower officers”…. Edited April 26, 2012 by JapanX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanX Posted April 26, 2012 Author Share Posted April 26, 2012 (edited) Variation C Edited April 26, 2012 by JapanX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanX Posted April 26, 2012 Author Share Posted April 26, 2012 All three variations in one gallery – for comparison analysis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanX Posted April 26, 2012 Author Share Posted April 26, 2012 I believe that design of all these later medals (Hupei Medal, Shanxi Warlord Medal, Hunan Province Medal, etc… see ) were based on this “nation-wide” medal. Regards, Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanX Posted April 26, 2012 Author Share Posted April 26, 2012 (edited) And another little (and obvious) remark - it looks like these medals in every class have two variations of central medallions Edited April 26, 2012 by JapanX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hc8604 Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 Variation A seems to be Japanese influenced. The flower is typical design for the Japanese way of drawing out the cherry blossom. The plum blossom would be fully rounded petals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanX Posted May 9, 2012 Author Share Posted May 9, 2012 Check this out Interesting example. Exquisit workmanship. Variation A. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanX Posted May 9, 2012 Author Share Posted May 9, 2012 It seems that our man Chang Tso-Lin had variation C in his bar ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanX Posted May 9, 2012 Author Share Posted May 9, 2012 Close up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanX Posted July 20, 2012 Author Share Posted July 20, 2012 Another example of Variation A (on wrong ribbon) Obverse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanX Posted July 20, 2012 Author Share Posted July 20, 2012 Reverse (note the number... most likely fake one ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanX Posted July 20, 2012 Author Share Posted July 20, 2012 Close ups Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanX Posted July 20, 2012 Author Share Posted July 20, 2012 Reverse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanX Posted July 20, 2012 Author Share Posted July 20, 2012 Familiar makers seal ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanX Posted July 20, 2012 Author Share Posted July 20, 2012 Number close up (actually right in the middle we see I istead of 1 ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanX Posted July 20, 2012 Author Share Posted July 20, 2012 Fake doc (that what you can do out of simple box for noodles) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanX Posted July 20, 2012 Author Share Posted July 20, 2012 Fake doc has number 2601 Medal has fake number 2106 Looks like somebody was too excited Cheers, Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanX Posted September 24, 2012 Author Share Posted September 24, 2012 Interesting example of cased Variation A (thick type inscription) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanX Posted September 24, 2012 Author Share Posted September 24, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanX Posted September 24, 2012 Author Share Posted September 24, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanX Posted September 24, 2012 Author Share Posted September 24, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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