drclaw

Thanks for a brilliant thread gents! These will have to be one of the most beautiful Orders ever created and these examples are no exception.

Oh my gosh, I counted AT LEAST 20 breast stars! I think it's gone beyond the ridiculous and having too much bling can be a bad thing. The Brits with their single Grand Cross Order of the Bath strike an elegant figure in contrast.

Ah, dang. Would you mind PM'ing your post above? I can run the characters through Google translate and also paste the pinyin.

Here's an elegant little medal. Probably late Qing, early Republic. The large centre character on the front of the badge reads "Jiang" (Praise, Award). The two characters in the banner read Wu (I or our) and Ji (Season). The characters on the reverse are, unfortunately, beyond my Primary 1 level Mandarin to translate. http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_07_2012/post-11630-0-15131300-1343219860.jpghttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_07_2012/post-11630-0-70855700-1343219887.jpg

Next, this very elegant piece was also included in a large collection of Chinese orders and medals. However, it does appear VERY similar to the Kim Khanh badges awarded by the Emperor of Annam. Ed Emering's excellent website has the following on the Kim Khanh: This ancient and venerable Annamese award, usually produced in gold (Kim Khanh) takes its name and shape from the ceremonial metal or stone gong. In its earliest days, it was a distinction sparingly awarded to high mandarins only. Many were custom made with inscriptions specific to recipient of the award. Those awarded to the Emperor were often made from precious stone such as jade. The Annamese Royal Court awarded this Order to many French Colonial government officials and military officers. It was presented in three classes differing in size and inscription. The Order was worn centered on the chest, usually suspended from a thin red neck cord. The Republic of Vietnam resurrected this award in 1957. http://www.themedalh...ench/annam.html Anyone have any thoughts? It might be a Kim Khanh that somehow found its way into a Chinese medal collection. The inscriptions on the Annam Kim Khanh were also in Mandarin.

JC, Paul and I have been working away at identifying some unknown but fascinating late Qing / early Republic medals. There are a few that have us stumped so I'll post these if anyone has any ideas. First, a very unusual badge. At first glance, the woman and child in the image might be the Empress Dowager Longyu and the young Emperor Puyi. The hats they are wearing also appear to be Manchu or Mongolian hats. However, the Mandarin characters on the top arm of the badge read "Zhong Hua" which is a formal name for China (post-Imperial). A Qing era badge would read "Da Qing Guo" or Great Qing Empire. One possibility is that the badge was awarded AFTER the abdication of the Dynasty on 12 February 1912 either by the court in the Forbidden City (Puyi continued to reside there until 1924 when he was finally kicked out by Warlord troops of the "Christian General" Feng Yuxiang) or in commemoration of them. Longyu herself died just one year later on 22 February 1913.

Hello Avsar! Hope life is treating you well. Were all 4th Class Osmanies awarded with a rosette? I've seen some with and some without. Gavin

Thanks for this Paul. Qing medals are an even more obscure area than Warlord medals. The Chinese characters read "Gong Pai" or Merit Badge. Welcome back Lorenzo! To answer your question, the Order of the Double Dragon was awarded in five Classes with the first three having three Grades, for a total of eleven categories. For the Second Type Double Dragons (1902-1912), the First Class and Second Class were awarded as breast stars and sash badges (although most recipients apparently wore these as neck badges). The Second Class sash badge has the appearance of a five-petal plum blossom, while the First Class sash badge has six-petals. The medal above is indeed very similar to the Second Class sash badge. Incidentally, while the Double Dragon was ostensibly replaced by Imperial decree in March 1911 by the Da Bao Zhang (Great Precious Order, also described by Western writers as the Grand Order of the Throne), and the Orders of the Red, Yellow, Blue and Black Dragon, it seems these later Orders were never awarded although specimens exist (most likely jeweler's samples). The London Gazette continued to publish approvals to British citizens to accept and wear "the Order of the Double Dragon" with one award described as conferred by the Emperor on 6 February 1912. The Dynasty was overthrown on 12 February 1912 when the Emperor abdicated. No approvals to accept and wear the Coloured Dragons were ever published by the London Gazette. Some more discussion here: http://gmic.co.uk/in...-double-dragon/ Gavin

VERY nice Nick! Thanks for posting all these beautiful bling. I've seen that photo of Kuribiyashi before, but only noticed the Order of United Glory breast star now. That first photo of Togo was extraordinary with the close-up. Not only is he wearing the Manchukuo Order of the Illustratious Dragon, but tucked into an obscure corner, is the Qing Empire Order of the Double Dragon!

Ah, our old friend, the "Order" of the Temple of the Azure Clouds. They must have distributed a fair few of these given the number of surviving examples.

Beautiful Nick! Thanks for posting these. Public Prosecutor General Suzuki looks like an especially cheerful chap. Must be his role as Lord High Executioner ...

Stunning Nick! I love these! The fellow in #38 was especially interesting - wearing both a Third Class Double Dragon neck badge, and a Republican Striped Tiger. Not the done thing I would have thought.

I wonder if British generals ever felt medal envy when meeting their foreign counterparts. Under the 1855 Regulations respecting Foreign Orders, British subjects were required to apply for permission to accept or wear any Foreign Order. Permission would only be granted where the Foreign Order was conferred in consequence of active and distinguished service before the enemy; or where the recipient was employed in the service of the foreign sovereign. Most British generals might wear at most a single breast star of the Order of the Bath, unless he was lucky enough to have served in India or Egypt. So British officers were decidedly spartan in their appearance, compared to their bling covered counterparts from Russia, German and Japan.

Viscount Kodama Gentaro, also wearing a First Class, Third Grade Double Dragon. Kodama helped etablish the modern Japanese army, served in the Sino-Japanese War, was Governor-General of tehe newly acquired Taiwan, held Cabinet positions, before serving as Chief of General Staff of the Manchurian Army (Chief-of-Staff to Marshall Kodama) during the Russo-Japanese War. He was considered Japan's best general and mastermind behind the successful land war in Manchuria.

Lovely Nick! Both Prince Oyama and Marquis Nozu are wearing the Second Type, First Class, Third Grade breast star, awarded between 1902-1911. These are beautiful and comprised an orange / red coral centre stone and pearl top stone. You can identify it as a Third Grade star by the pattern of five-petal flowers surrounding the centre stone, and the pearls set in the individual clouds in the outer border surrounding the medallion.

Thanks Nick! Oooh, a thread for Japanese with Chinese awards would be great! But what which awards to pick -Qing, Warlord, Manchukuo or even more challenging, Wang Jingwei puppet government?

Fantastic Nick! Thanks for taking the time to post these images. And I see Admiral Baron Dewa Shigetō (post #21 and 22) is wearing a magnificent First Class, Third Grade Double Dragon below the Rising Sun star. Would you mind emailing me the original image? I'm slowly building up a quite a collection of Double Dragon recipients.

Definitely! The Korean Orders weren't common at all but very interesting. The Order of the Eight Trigrams occasionally pops up on Yahoo Japan Auctions but often it is of local (Korean) manufacture and suffering from "enamel pest". Maybe one of the high-ranking officers is wearing the mysterious and unknown Order of the Purple Falcon or Order of the Auspicious Phoenix!

Thanks gents for an entertaining thread. I always enjoy looking at these medals, especially the Order of Osmanie Spfoo, have a look at Markus's thread on "Restoring enamels" in the "Preservation and Restoration of Military Artifacts". There are a couple of folks who professionally restore enamels so that's something you might wish to consider if you have an attachment to this particular Osmanie. The cost is not expensive but of course it'll come down to the value of the medal.

Wow! This guy takes the prize for the most bling worn at any one time. He even beats Emperor Bokassa I and his 16+ breast stars! He probably walked very ... very ... slowly ...

A very interesting fellow, Michael. Five years in China as naval adviser to the Qing Government. Thanks for sharing! Gavin

What an interesting individual! Most of the foreign naval officers training or advising the Chinese Navy were British and these made up a large category of recipients in the London Gazette listings (this published British Government approvals to citizens to accept and wear the Double Dragon). But of course, the Danes are an equally famous sea-faring race! If he was a "Naval Advisor to the Viceroy of Chihli in China", he may have been attached to the Imperial Naval Training Academy at Tianjin. The First and Second Class comprised a sash badge and breast star. The Third Class and Fourth Class were a neck badge. The Fifth Class was a breast badge. The sash ribbon for the First and Second Class was a maroon red. However many recipients wore the badge as a neck badge on a variety of unofficial ribbons of different colours (some with dragons embroidered on them). The ribbons for the Third to Fifth Class was blue with yellow / gold stripes. The 3rd Class 3rd Grade would seem the appropriate award for him. Could you tell us his name? Gavin

If you have the miniature handy, it might be worth checking out if there is a distinct patterned border around the centre stone. For the Second Type Second Class and Third Class Double Dragons, the different grades are: * First Grade - pattern of five-petalled flowers * Second Grade - T- (or S-) shaped fret pattern * Third Grade - wedge shaped or M-shaped pattern

Hi there Michael, It is a Second Type, Third Class Double Dragon (blue enamel colour of the centre medallion, blue centre stone), awarded between 1902-1911. Normally, you can tell what Grade it is by looking at the patterned border around the centre stone and from the manchu inscriptions running along the left side of the medallion but it is hard to tell in this case given it's a miniature. Awards were conferred according to the recipient's status or rank. The categories of awards - which remained fairly stable throughout the 30 year history of the Order were as follows and can be helpful in identifying an individual recipient. These are taken from a professional English translation I obtained for the original 1882 Statutes. The text in square brackets is what has come to be accepted today so it is interesting to see some variation. * First Class, First Grade - for the king or emperor of a country [foreign heads of state] * First Class, Second Grade - for princes, and royal family members and relatives [crown princes and prime ministers] * First Class, Third Grade - for hereditary ministers, general ministers, envoys of the first rank [nobles, cabinet ministers, ambassadors, top ranking military officers] * Second Class, First Grade - for envoys of the second rank ministers, lieutenant-generals and vice-admirals] * Second Class, Second Grade - for envoys of the third rank and general customs commissioners [consul-generals, major-generals and rear-admirals] * Second Class, Third Grade - for counselors of the first rank, higher level military officers, consul-generals and military generals [high officials, school superintendents, brigadier-generals and commodores] * Third Class, First Grade - for counselors of the second and third ranks, the entourage of consul-generals, captains of the first rank, and generals of the third rank [consuls and high officials] * Third Class, Second Grade - for deputy consuls, captains of the second rank and generals of the fourth rank [vice-consuls, lesser officials, lieutenant-colonels or commanders] * Third Class, Third Grade - for translators and military officers of the fifth and sixth rank [lower ranking diplomats, majors and captains] * Fourth Class - for soldiers [lieutenants and NCOs] * Fifth Class - for businessmen [businessmen] The low status accorded to men of commerce - where the wealthiest Western industrialist would be outranked by the most junior embassy translator - reflects the traditional Confucian distaste for the merchant class. In the Confucian scheme of things, agriculture and the gentry-literati was celebrated (although this didn't help the peasants much when they were starving from drought, flood, locusts or war), while profit seeking commerce was treated with aloof disdain. I am about to release a small book on the Double Dragon which I wrote with the generous support of others, like Richard La Tondre, and a number of auction houses who contributed photographs. So watch this space if you're interested. Gavin

Very nice Nick. And you're right, it IS unusual to have a Vietnamese award, issued by France (yellow / green ribbons; the ones issued by the Emperor of Annam were on yellow / red ribbons), made in Holland!