Carol I

If it helps, the date of the award was 20 December 1926.

An interesting topic, but I guess most of these awards were for members of the Security Troops (certainly the shoulder marks in the post no. 8). I guess they were anyhow the most visible, in contrast to the members of the more elusive sections of the State Security Department.

Have you seen The New York Times contemporary pictorial ?

It must be from the reign of King Ferdinand. I would say it contained a knight's cross since it does not seem to have the mark usually left by an officer's rosette on the inside of the lid.

I think he meant the ears beneath the coat-of-arms.

Sorry to hear about that, Lars. Maybe you'll have better luck next time.

Rear Admiral of the Imperial Russian Navy, from a recent auction

And another miniature group on sword

A general-major of the Soviet Union, from a recent auction.

Here are Dragomir's images (click on the thumbnails for the full-size images).

In principle they should be available at major libraries or regional offices of the National Archives, but unfortunately I do not know anyone who could go and check personally.

As far as I know, there was no Chancery of Orders during the communist years, but all decorations were awarded through decrees which had to be published in Buletinul Oficial, so in theory that could be a starting point for looking for names. You could also try to contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to see whether they kept records of awards to foreigners (but they are very slow to answer).

It's a 32-centimetre long ivory baton with gold, diamond and enamel ornaments. I'll look if I have some better photos. I could try to scale down the images. Contact me privately.

They are usually very slow in answering, but you could try to give them a call. On the page with the contact details there is a public relations department "pentru eliberarea de acte privind drepturi ale cetăţenilor rom?ni şi străini" (for releasing documents regarding the rights of Romanian and foreign citizens). Their phone numbers are: direct +40-21-313-92-95 or extensions 10379 and 10337 through the switchboard +40-21-303-70-80. Good luck!

Quite. :(

Unfortunately I cannot tell. I looked for it and I found one on eBay right now. Maybe you could ask the seller all these questions. This is stated in the book description and appears in the photos posted by the seller.

Could Todor Petrov's book "Bulgarian orders and medals" be the reference you are looking for? It appears quite often on eBay.

Another database identifies this marshal baton as being offered to King Carol II. Carol II made Alexander of Yugoslavia a marshal of the Romanian Army in 1933 so it is quite possible that he was made in turn marshal of the Yugoslav Army. Is there any confirmation of this promotion in the Yugoslav sources?

Brass pin? I guess it's olive oil.

That was the Normandie-Niemen squadron.

Prussia - Marshal - 1909 (King Carol I of Romania - MNIR exhibition)

Prussia - Marshal - 1909 (King Carol I of Romania - MNIR exhibition)

Romania - Marshal - 1930s (Marshal Alexandru Averescu - MNIR exhibition)

I do not think it would work on the water-based variety.

Take a look in the thread entitled Order of the Star of the Romania for a link to an article (in Romanian ) with a first attempt to categorise the types of this order.