922F

Many thanks for your great help

Do you have pictures of a grand cross set? possible to post them here?

Thank you

KDVR

I do not have access to images of a grand cross set.

Except for the ribbon, most grand cross insignia is similar to your set with stars being 85-95 mm wide and badges [including crown] 100-110 mm tall and 65-70 mm wide. Sashes are 100-105 mm. wide. McNamara's collar set star's body was gilt and so was a Medina marked 85 mm wide star. I believe McNamara's collar was composed of white enameled miniature size order crosses alternating with gilt crowns connected via small gilt chains. A regular grand cross badge with crown was attached to the collar.

Many thanks for the information - It's a great help for me!

Do you know how many grades / levels do exist of that decoration?

Short answer---no.

In the late 1970s, the ANS library had a copy of the order's 1903 or 1906 [Latin] statutes. The document listed 5 'regulation' grades. These were grand cross, grand commander {insignia like yours], commander, officer, and knight all with the typical insignia associated with these ranks. Over the years, the statutes were amended and translated into various national languages several times. Spanish language statutes have been offered on eBay--don't know if they related to the Spanish or Latin American branches of the Order.

I am not sure, but insignia variations seem to suggest that there are more grades now, maybe depending on national branch or langue. In the mid-1990s, Bob McNamara had a set of collar, badge and star set in his collection that appeared to be of French manufacture. French insignia uses a black ribbon, presumably to avoid confusion with the Legion of Honor. I have seen several medals with the central device of your badge and star on red ribbons. There may have been [be] unenameled except for the centers [possibly donat's insignia?] associated with this Order. Kai Meyer 's collection contained such insignia but whether they were actual awards or unfinished pieces is a mystery.

Insignia with maker's plates or marks exists, those seen to date: Italy--Gardino, Johnson, Cravanzola; France--Bacqueville, Halley; Spain--Celavjo; Portugal---Medina, da Costa. I am not sure but perhaps remember seeing a Rothe [Vienna] made Grand Cross set and a La Royale [Rio] marked star. I'd guess that maybe about 1/2-1/3 of the stars have makers marks.

Most insignia appears similar in design and execution to yours but Spanish or Portugese [?] made crosses sometimes have more rounded or sharper angles and larger centers. Some stars, again Spanish or Portugese?, have larger centers. Some commander badges, yet again, likely Spanish, hang from braided cords rather than cravat ribbons. Some badges do not have suspension crowns. These varients may signify national usage, manufacturer short-cuts, or sub-grades.

Cases are usually red leatherette, sometimes with the jeweler's name on the inside lid, sometimes with the center of Order of our Lady of Mercy insignia embossed in gilt on the outer lid.

Yes, this is the Order of our Lady of Mercy which supposedly traces itself back to 1218 or so. The order still exists in a semi-official relationship with the Catholic Church. It seems most active in Spain, Portugal and Italy. Some branches exist in South America. There are a couple of web sites that detail the order's history & activities--e.g. saints.sqpn.com/ncd06138.htm

As to price that depends on what a willing buyer would pay--the prices listed by our dealer colleagues seem a bit high, but perhaps I'm out of touch. A Spanish type commander's badge sold on eBay recently for 100 euros.

Gentlemen,

Some insignia possibly pre-1899 has the inscription ORDRE DE ?TOILE D'ANJOUAN COMORES. This opinion is based on insignia with old ribbon attached to dated award documents, so may not be conclusive. It is not clear from any French references I am familiar with whether these are statutory or varient insignia. Ed probably correctly makes a point in that most all insignia identifiable as post 1890 has the wording ORDRE ROYAL DE ?TOILE D'ANJOUAN COMORES to indicate the order's 'new' colonial status. Besides usual contemporary 'official' references and bestowal documents, manufacturer catalogs use this style.

The Republic of the Comores reinstituted/reactivated this Order some years after instituting the Order of the Green Crescent. Apparently, the first Republican insignia used was the same as the colonial order i.e. with inscription ORDRE ROYAL DE ?TOILE D'ANJOUAN COMORES. Later issues have the inscription ORDRE DE ?TOILE D'ANJOUAN COMORES. This type is now on sale at various Parisian shops. I 'm traveling now but will post more specific info when I return home--maybe 3-6 weeks. Ed Emering may have posted some info regarding this change on his site. There may be more on French websites dealing with the subject too.

James--

The collar/badge between King Zog's Annunziata collar/badge and his Albanian Order of Bravery badge in this illustration is a portion of his Romanian Order of Carol I insignia. Zog's Albanian Order of Bravery neck badge appears to the photo viewer's left of his Italian Annunziata star; the Carol star is to the viewer's right of the Annunziata star.

James,

Once again, nomenclature confusion. A presentation given at the 2008 OMSA convention detailed the development and history of this award including apparent name changes. Artan's color illustration, either directly from Bertrand archives or drawn from the same archive for use in Guy Stair Sainty/Rafal Heydel-Mankoo's World Orders of Knighthood & Merit, shows the obverse. Megan's illustration depicting the reverse of the insignia appears to be from Klietmann's "Ordens-Lexicon, Vol 2" or from that same illustration reproduced in Klenau's European Orders.

Do you have statutes indicating that the Order of Skanderbeg included a collar? No statutes or other documents known to me, other than the flawed World Orders of Knighthood & Merit entry, suggest such grade of that Order existed or currently exists. There is no bibliographical cite or other evidence supporting the World Orders of Knighthood & Merit assertion regarding the name of this insignia. It appears that Mankoo accepted bad information regarding the award name or made an incorrect assumption.

Artan and g_deploige,

Belvue [also known as Bellevue Palace and site of the Belgian Dynasty Museum] Museum staff attempted to find this collar which SHOULD BE in its Albert I collection without any success in 1993, 1994 and 1995. Again in 2000, it could not be located there. Only a record card [with the information quoted by g_deploige] could be found. Staff at the Royal Museum of the Army and Military History in Brussels and the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium [which house some decorations relating to King Albert I] reported in 1994 that it was not in their collections. Speculation that Albert's Albanian collar [and some of his other decorations] somehow got intermingled with Leopold III's awards continues. A London auction house sold a portion of Leopold III's awards in the 1980s (approximately) but this collar was not one of those lots.

Hello All,

I am back in connectivity for a while and want to thank everyone for their comments and illustrations on this thread. On the question of exactly what the document Artan posted that apparently confers a Wied military merit award actually means, I agree with Artan's interpretation. That is, it represents an award of a Black Eagle medal.

Why? The very fluid conditions during the Prince's time in Albania, especially at the end, mitigated against accurate record keeping. Dr. Klietmann noted this several times in letters and his article that appeared both in his sales lists and the "Medal Collector". It explains why even with his access to Wied family records, his awardee list is faulty. {N.B. Twice, at least, his attention was directed to the awards to Dutchmen. He never added them to his list but then the Ordens Lexicon number was never reprinted.}

The apparent change in court letterhead illustrated earlier in this thread suggests a very fluid and not necessarily consistent use. This hints that "correct" forms were not absolutely followed.

The document is signed by the Court Chancellor and not the Orders Secretary or the Prince. Does this mean it is an "out-of-bounds" item? A personal favor? Both somewhat strange due to the position of the awardee but perhaps possible. A more likely explanation is that it was a "rush job."

Another factor was the apparent much wider distribution of Black Eagle and Arrival medals noted in Heaton-Armstrong. If Heaton-Armstrong was actually the Orders Secretary and received the order, no document exists in his family archive. Documents apparently accompanied some awards to foreign soldiers, consuls and diplomats but not all. It is unknown whether a document for Abbas exists in Egyptian archives. Diplomas for most of his decorations survive in the Abdan Palace collection but two researchers have told me they could not locate an Albanian Black Eagle document there.

Next is the posit of a heretofore completely unknown Wied military merit medal. While such an award may be possible, it appears not probable. Remember that Wied seems to have been a protocol stickler with decrees for everything from court ceremonial to the Order statute, from the "Crown Prince's flag design" to the style of trouser trim. For a military award to exist without documentation or physical evidence appears strange.

Most tellingly to me, is the circumstance of finding of this document together with a Black Eagle medal.

Frankly, I am happily surprized that any documents held in private hands in Albania over the past 95 years at all survived.

I need to check with RR, but I am looking at Pfarrer lists. The Belgian one really throws me though-

This ex-Colson bar likely has the Belgian Crown substituted for something else---when Tony held it speculative thoughts were something Reuss [as Kapitular posits] or maybe a Bulgarian St. Alexander. Seem to recall that the backing had been resewn at one time or another. As mentioned elsewhere, some BE Crown bestowals can be traced and others, not. Good luck.

ARTAN!!!! MAGNFICANT!! I am overwhelmed by your continuing archive richness and variety! These are wonderful materials without parallel in my years following Albanian awards. I cannot congratulate you enought! Sincere thanks!!

James, Klietmann writes that documents were officially written/presented in Albanian and French. French being the then universal diplomatic language it is no real surprise that French is the document language. Some people apparently got documents in both languages. Bob McNamara said that some documents were also given in German but whether these were items submitted in connection with 'permission to wear' requests is unclear. I suspect that when the Prince's official translator was being given an award, the language issue would be more complicated that usual. The 2nd September document is signed by the Court/Palace Marshal. To my understanding, there is no record of any Wied Albanian military merit medal heretofore.

Eric, Thank you for the heads-up, more to follow.

Artan--Sincere Thanks Again!!!! Magnificant! WONDERFUL!!!

James--The 6 Month Kingdom cover illustration is actually represents Heaton-Armstrong, according to the authors. I contacted them for an illustration of him wearing the BE to date withut success. That's why he's shown wearing a black fez-type hat and only the BE breast badge and accession medal. (Both hardly identifiable.) Again, this is not an actual photo but a heavily retouched illustration. Heaton-Armstrong is seen in several of the "Einzug des Fursten Wilhelm. von Albanien" and "Einzug des Furstenpaares von Albanien" postcard series pictures, usually to the prince?s right.

Artan!!! Again, FANTASTIC PHOTO!! THANK YOU!! Do you know anything about the officer wearing the Black Eagle Order? Very few Albanians received the Order, according to Klietmann. This photo could reconfirm that Klietmann's tabulation of awards is not entirely correct. [His Ordens-Lexicon article was earlier known not to include the names of several Dutch individuals decorated by Wilhelm.] Heaton-Armstrong certainly suggests that Wilhelm awarded Black Eagle insignia, especially the medals, more freely than Klietmann states.

Artan & James: The Black Eagle Order military division was distinguished from the civil division for knights [and likely, officers] by the addition of crossed swords to the ribbon, not the badge. [illustrated in J. Jacob's Court Jewelers of the World.] This officer may have received a civil division badge or the swords may have fallen off of the ribbon. Klietmann reports an award of just one commander with swords but does not describe the insignia.

James----you are correct, concerning the stars Wilhelm wears being related to the powers interested in promoting Albanian independence. Austria-Hungary, Italy, Russia, France, Germany and the United Kingdom were the six powers guaranteeing Albanian independence and the Albanian state. Austria-Hungary and Italy were the 'most concerned' and actually supplied most resources [funds, arms, advisors, etc.] other than the Dutch officers serving in the Gendarmerie available to Wilhelm. Perhaps lack of space explains absence of his Legion of Honor and Red Eagle stars.

Artan, again most sincere thanks for sharing your wonderful photo archive!! Absolutely terrific!! ! WONDERFUL!!!

Artan----Your first and second pictures include persons in the Albanian-Italian Civil Government uniform of the 1939-43 period. [Those with hat badges of double-headed eagle surmounted by Italian type crown.] Several references describe this uniform; the easiest to obtain is from an Italian Militaria magazine. I am traveling but will post the magazine name and number in about a month as I do not remember it. Terrific photos!! Thank you for posting them!

I do not know about the other photos.

Artan----WONDERFUL!!! It is the first time I have seen photo! Many thanks for posting this!! Have you any illustrations of other people wearing Black Eagle insignia? Best regards!!

Yes Sir,

I have an original of these postcards. Attach another picture of the Prince with the Black Eagle Star, in Durres, june 1914.

Regards,

Artan

Artan----Sincere thanks to you for posting the last Wilhelm photo (dated 7.03.14) in your series!!!!! I have a nearly illegible xerox of it made 40 years ago but have been unable to rediscover a clear copy of it until you posted this one! Is it taken from the "Einzug des Fursten Wilhelm. von Albanien" and "Einzug des Furstenpaares von Albanien" postcard series?

James-----Wilhelm received a Russian Alex Nevski GC on 27 Feb 1914. This is mentioned in the royalark website as well as the Almanach de Gotha. I suspect the neckbadge is a Romanian Carol I Commander, yet another Romanian link. Albanian historian Hussien Kuptai reported that Wilhelm had received the Grand Commander of this Order in 1911 or 1912----but his statement is not confirmed. Here we see him possibly wearing at least the neckbadge. He is not wearing several other Grand Cross/lst class stars he had received before landing in Albania (Legion of Honor, Prussian Red Eagle, etc.) so it may not be surprising that he would not have worn a Carol I Grand Commander star if he actually had been awarded one.

It seems that the first breast star, upper left, and the sash belong to the Grand Cross of the Order of the Star of Rumania. This order had been conferred on the prince in late 1913, shortly before he accepted the sovereignty of Albania. Since he had close connections to Rumania through his wife, eventually settled there and became a Rumanian national, it seems appropriate.

I suspect that the Black Eagle insignia were probably not available by 7th March 1914, when the picture was taken on his arrival at Durazzo.

Now, I wonder what the unusual third breast star at the bottom is?

Cheers,

James

James,

You are correct regarding the Romanian Star and other insignia in the photo just posted. The 3rd star in your most recently posted photo of Wilhem is a W?rttemberg Friedrichs-Orden. His four badge ordenspange is a Prussian Crown (3rd?) followed by ? but usually described as a Zentar medal, followed by a Bulgarian Military Merit Order 5th class then a Romanian Carol 40th Jubilee Medal of 1906. A somewhat atypical group with no Albanian national honor. Nonetheless, this is the most generally reproduced illustration of Wilhelm.

For the illustration of Wilhelm wearing the BE, refer to the 7th post in the http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt...l%3Den%26sa%3DN series; I miscounted the position in my earlier post by two positions. This is the one with two b/w photos [one above the other; first titled "Einzug des Fursten Wilhelm. von Albanien"--second titled "Einzug des Furstenpaares von Albanien"] just under the post containing the card with 3 Albanian stamps on the card face similar to the one you've just posted . If you enlarge the first image the star is quite clear. Enlarge the 2nd and the sash becomes clear.

For a hand drawn illo and incomplete list of Wilhelm's personal awards, see also http://www.royalark.net/Albania/wied.htm. Wilhelm's baggage actually included Black Eagle Order insignia when he traveled to Albania; he also took uniforms to be distributed to high rank Albanian officials waiting for his arrival in Durazzo (Essad Pasha, for example). Several sources report this story, most recently The Six Month Kingdom.