James Hoard

To complete the picture on Moroccan decorations, I have found out that this is the "Wissam al-Moukafaa al-Wataniya" or the "Order of National Recompense". It comes in three classes, Commander, Officer and Chevalier. The picture above of the second class or Officer. There is picture of the lovely Commander class in this article entiled "Un résistant juif marocain décoré du Ouissam d'Al Moukafaa" see the accompanying video: http://www.road90.com/watch.php?id=5YjYeduOn5 Cheers James

Emmanuel, Thank you for posting these very useful pictures. The Order of Labour is called "Ouissam Ash-Choghl" in French. According to English transliteration it is "Wissam us-Shugl". Cheers, James

KIMJ Thanks for posting the miniatures, but they do not seem to correspond fully with the full-size medal bar above. See, for example the Swedish Order of the Polar Star and all the rosettes. The rossettes do broadly correspond to the higher class orders that he is wearing in the portrait, but neither agrees with the full-size bar. Cheers, James

Any idea whcih Moroccan order/medal this could be? Cheers, James

I know of one production company that has a small design team who 'tout' for business by going to people with new designs and suggestions for new orders and medals where they judge a gap in the market to exist. Sometimes not new decorations but the redesign of existing decorations which have been around for some years. This does not simply apply to actual nations, but also provinces, pretenders and the like. I believe that much of the proliferation of decorations in Malaysia has been due to this succesful policy. Though outsiders may judge that in this case it has been a little too succesful and may have past saturation point by several years. Once all the states were saturated, they started on the federal territory, the scount movement, the local branch of the order of st john, etc. Their modus is to provide the designs free on the basis that they have first crack of the production. What usually seems to happen is that if the new proposals meet with satisfaction, the first batch or so of production comes their way but later it goes to Singapore or somewhere else and the quality drops away. Cheers James

The Order in question is definitely the Order of Kalakaua I. In this case the insignia of the Fourth Class or Knight Companion (there were no Officer or Knight classes as mentioned above). The German sounding recipients were Lt. Guido von Usedorn (sic) i.e. Usedom, Imperial German Navy, 1879 Lt. August von Heringen (sic), Imperial German Navy, 1879 Lt. Nichalass (sic) Reitzenstein, Imperial Russian Navy, 1879 Henry Reimenschneider, Honolulu, 1879 Lt. Da Fonsaca Walheim, Imperial Russian Navy (sic), 1879 Baron F. von Muller, Supt Botanical Gardens, Melbourne, Australia, 1882 Cmdr. Richard Geissler, Imperial German Navy, 1884 J von Scheers, Royal Dutch Navy (sic), 1888 Source: Gordon Medcalf, Hawaiian Royal Orders. Oceania Coin Company, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1963. pp 15-16 & 22-23. The clasp device suggests that the award was made for a specific action of some kind, an act of bravery, a rescue or something like that. There was no fifth class so there was no need for anything on that basis but I have seen such devices once or twice before. Cheers James

Could someone be kind enough to list all the medals as the appear in the picture left to right? Cheers James

Nothing has been published. You have to go to the National Archives in Kew and examine the WO and FO series to find what you are lokking for. You need to examine both because there are variations. The Tamplin numbers are far from accurate as the DSO figure for Russia clearly suggests. The London Gazette published names until 1916 but then stopped because they could not keep up. The King was so angry about the record keeping that he demanded that all foreign awards except those to British protected persons (usually under more accurate Colonial Office control and record keeping) be stopped before the embarrasment was publicly apparent. The practice of awards to foreigners got out of hand during the middle of the Great War ca 1916-1917. For example, one bafoon of a general who headed a military mission to Russia (presumably his 'abilities' meant he could be spared) was given sets of various insignia of several orders and decorations, which he distributed to various people in the Russian forces but never recorded who they were. The home authorities pestered him for a period of four years before he sat down and drew one up from memory. But his method of transliterating names was so idiosyncratic that it was impossible to identify most of the individuals and their certificates could not be drawn up. Things got more and more difficult to verify as Russia collapsed and emerged into several different independent states, where names were now being rendered in the local language rather than Russian. Years later in the 1920s and 1930's British diplomats in Eastern Europe were reporting this or that individual turning up at receptions wearing a British decoration which they could not verify. Irrate Lithuanian and Polish officers were writing in to the Foreign Office demanding why 10 years had past and they still had not received their certificates. In at least one case there were grave doubts as to the veracity of one such claim, but the FO could not prove it one way or the other and the fellow in question happened to be the current dictator, so he got his certificate in 1927. In most instances, the allies submitted numbers available to their various opposite numbers and relied upon them to draw up the deserving cases and submit the names. Some were more accurate and dilligent in doing so than others. In the case of Montenegro, in 1915 their "share" of awards amounted to a CMG and a DSO which were accordingly sent by the local legation to the War Ministry. One morning Voyvode Vukutich and Prince Mirko happened to come in and saw the two decorations on a desk. They had a little discussion in which Prince Mirko preferred the look of the DSO and General Vukutich the CMG, so helped themselves. The first the British legation knew about it was when they both turned up at the next reception wearing them, so there was nothing to be done but to issue certificates to them. George V probably broke his pen signing their approvals and certificates! Cheers James

Thanks for posting the additional information, which I had not seen. Consequently, however good the quality of the production I think I may baulk at having to fork out $250 three times over. This is an attempt at 'milking' that puts me off from buying even one of them. Cheers James

Seems a mite daft to be perpetuating nonsense. Most people are willing to learn, even if they have known something to be X and it turns out to be Y. I would imagine that a far larger number of folk go about thinking on order is a medal, so perhaps you should think about adding "or medal" after the word order everywhere on your website! Cheers James

Hello Megan Thanks for posting these interesting pictures. This secondary title of "Order of Dignity" is bogus, pure invention out of thin air by Werlich. The same goes for all the other Lesotho orders. He had no understanding of the Sotho heritage and the cultural or historical origins of the names of the orders ,so decided to re-christened them by playing about with the motto inscribed in English round the centres of the badges and stars. Cheers, James

Does anyone have a complete list of the Merit Medals instituted by Manchukuo in 1938? Apparently five such medals were instituted by the decree dated 14th July 1938, but I have not been able to find any information on them. All I have found is the names for three of the five, i.e. Medal of Merit for Public Service, Medal of Merit for Harmony and Medal of Merit for Righteous Acts. What were the other two? A further decree on 19th December 1944 instituted two other medals, the Medal of Merit for Civil Servants and the Medal of Merit for Local Government Servants. Is it possible that writers confused these two with the 1938 institution? Any further information on these awards would be much appreciated. Cheers, James

I am not sure if this has been posted before, but a rather interesting and luxurious looking book has been published on Chinese Orders, Decorations and Medals which claims to feature the following: 1) More than 90% of all Chinese Orders ever awarded; 2) 175 sets of high quality pictures; 3) Recent reference prices of each item in the international trading market and private sales; 4) Rare Qing Dynasty Orders documentations; 5) Hard cover upholstered in silk; 6) 210 pages. The sale price is US$260 + shipping and handling. A bit steep but looks like the production and printing quality seems to be extremely high. Chinese Orders (1862-1955) ISBN 978-0-9781539-2-2 More information at http://chinesemedal.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/recently-published-chinese-orders/ Cheers, James

Hi Mervyn, I think that may also be because the insignia has only been around since 1926 and there being no foreign awards, they rarely get into the hands of the continental dealer market. Cheers James

Hello Claudio An amazing story and very, very interesting. Presumably at some point he must have also served in Finland, given the Finnish order on the medal bar? Cheers, James

Hello Mervyn, I am not certain you have got this right. The "accolade", the act of dubbing a knight with a sword on each schoulder formally marking his introduction into knighthood, is only conferred on the Queen's subjects, i.e. a citizen of the UK or one of her other Commonwealth realms such as New Zealand, Papua New Guinea or Jamaica. This applies to the knight's classes of the various British orders of chivalry, the rank of knight bachelor (here discussed) and a number of orders in Commonwealth countries such as the New Zealand Order of Merit, the Knights of St Andrew of Barbados, Antigua, etc. Foreigners , i.e. in British law those who are not from Commonwealth countries, may receive appointment as honoraray knights commander or knights grand cross/grand commander in an order of chivalry. However, they are not entitled to the accolade and therefore cannot assume the title "Sir" nor their wives "Lady". Their appointments also do not count towards the limited membership numbers. Honorary Knights Grand Cross/Grand Commander do not now also receive the collar of the respective order, unless in unusual circumstances such as being a foreign head of state. 'Men of the cloth', are similarly not supposed to receive the accolade because they could not bear arms. But this practice seems to have been abandoned in all cases save the Church of England within the UK itself and its existing dependent territories. Knights Bachelor, contrary to the strap line in this thread, are not members of any order. Hence the designation "bachelor", which signifies that they did not take the usual vows associated with any articular order. They simple recived the title of a knight after being dubbed. Traditionally, nobody was permitted to assume the title of knight (Sir) until the accolade was actually conferred. So someone on whom HM announced her intention of conferring a knighthood, say on New Year's Day, could not assume the title until such time he had been called to the palace some months or even years later and was dubbed on the shoulders. The only exceptions were where local Govenor-General or Governor had been given the authority to confer the accolade or beacuse someone simply could not attend in person, letters patent were issued to him dispensing with the ceremony. In 1971 all this changed. Thenceforward, all British or Commonwealth (realm) citizens whose appointments had been announced in the London or local national Gazette, could assume the title from their date of appointment. From 1971 Knights Bachelor received an official set of insignia at the same time as the accolade was conferred. A small neck badge suspended from the red and gold striped ribbon. Until then there was no officially conferred insignia. Those who had been knighted could purchase the large breast badge featured above from their "trade union", the Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor. The latter had been established with Royal permission from George V in 1912, one of their aims and objectives being to secure the right to receive or wear some badge, insignia or token of outward recognition of their status as status, to which until then they had none. The right to purchase the breast badge was finally granted by the King in 1926. Thus the insignia is, strictly speaking, a "title badge" not an order, not unlike in manner to the title badges instituted by him for various Indian titles in 1911, or going back two reigns for the three or four Burmese titles. Until the reign of George IV, British subjects who were received into a foreign order of knighthood could petition the King to receive the titular honour of "Sir" in the UK and were usually kngihted along the same lines as Knights Bachelor. Although that custome then ceased, in practice it continued for those Knights Grand Cross and Knights Commander of the Royal Family Order the Order of the Guelphs of Hannover until the dissolution of the union of the two crowns in 1837. Also until the reign of George IV, foreigners could be made Knights Bachelor and receive the accolade. There are several such examples, perhaps the artists Sir Peter Paul Rubens and Sir Peter Lely are the best known. But again, George IV ended that tradition. Cheers James.

I am not sure this is good news or bad news, because it means that sooner or later the Chinese fakers will be at it again. We will all need to be very careful. Cheers, James

Hello Claudio A very interesting set. Thanks for posting it for all of us to see. If you have the ability to blow up the picture, it may be possible to read the name engraved on the rim of one of his British medals. I wonder of he belonged to one of those old Scottish families in Sweden, like the Hamiltons, Malcolms or Montgomerys. Cheers, James

Hugh, I found this second class Volunteer Corps Medal in an old Spinks catalogue. However, I cannot read Urdu so cannot identify which bar corresponds to which designation. Indeed, there are four bars altogether, three in silver and one in bronze. Consequently, what the fourth bar stands for remains just as mysterious. Cheers, James

Emmanuel, Thank you for postings these great images. I cannot see the colour of the wreath of leaves around the Grand Councellor badge and star. Is it red? Cheers, James

No Hugh, I only worked in a business with a lot of dealings with Korea. Though I only ever managed two visits there during my whole 12 years with that firm. Cheers, James

Hello Hugh, The Korean orders were manufactured in both Korea and Japan, with the quality of the Japanese produced versions much superior. There are also European made versions obviously made for the collectors market because one generally only finds those two orders for which Trost gave illustrations. The system of orders almost exactly mirrored the Japanese orders. 1. The Grand Order of the Golden Ruler or 'Kumchok Tae-hunjung' (1900) is usually translated as "Golden Measure" but this is incorrect. The Korean word is a pun on ruler as in sovereign as well as ruler as in "foot ruler". It equates to the Grand Collar of the Japanese Order of the Chrysanthemum and came in one class. Riband is 108mm moire in the Imperial colours, dark gold with red edges 19mm. 2. The Grand Order of the Auspicous Stars or 'Sosong Tae-hunjung' (1900) cames in a Grand Cordon class only and equates to the Japanese GC of the Order of the Chrysanthemum. The reverse is curiously marked "Auspicious Stars Second Class". Riband is 110mm moire, lavender with 16mm gold stripes towards each edge. 3. The Grand Order of the Plumb Blossoms or 'Yihwa Tae-hunjung' (1900). Another single class order with a Grand Cordon decoration only which equtes to the GC of the Order of the Rising Sun with Paulonia Flowers. Riband 110mm moire, purple with white stripes 19mm towards each edge. 4. The Taeguk Order of Merit or 'Taeguk jung' (1900). Equated to the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun and served as the principal civil order of merit; awarded in eight classes. Riband for the 1st class is 107mm moire, red with 12mm deep blue stripes towards each edge. 5. The Order of the Eight Tigrams or 'Palgoe jung' (1901). Equated to the Japanese Order of the Sacred Treasure and served as the junior civil order of merit; awarded in eight classes. Each class represented a particular object and virtue, First Class: heaven/power. Second Class: water/complacent satisfaction. Third Class: fire/elegance. Fourth Class: thunder/motion. Fifth Class: wind/flexibility. Sixth Class: the moon/peril or difficulty. Seventh Class: mountains/rest. Eighth Class: the earth/submission. Each has the symbol for the different trigram on the obverse. Riband for the 1st class is 107mm moire, pale grey-blue with 18mm russet-red stripes towards each edge. One usually sees various classes of this order for sale from Japanese dealers on a Japanese Rising Sun ribbon. 6. The Order of the Purple Falcon or 'Chiong jung' (1901). This was the military order of merit and corresponded to the Order of the Kite in Japan, awarded in eight classes. Given Korean military prowess during this period, the number of awards were very few and actual insignia must be rarer than hens' teeth. Probably never conferred on any foreigner. Riband of the 1st class is 107mm moire, white with red stripes towards each edge. 7. The Order of the Auspicious Phoenix or 'Bong jung' (1907). This was the ladies' order and equated to the Japanese Order of the Precious Crown, awarded in eight classes. Riband for the 1st class is 80mm moire, pink (called orchid) with 9mm white stripes towards each edge. Cheers James

Here is a picture of an authentic GC set of the Order of the Eight Tigrams sold at Spinks in 2005. If you look closely at the central disk and the way in which it is attached to the arms, the museum copy is clearly very crude in comparison. Given the carelessness over the models, the saches (sizes and colours), the uniforms, etc, the original comment by Rick is credible. Cheers, James

Hello Hugh, I think some of the ribands look like they have come from a theatrical costumer. Here are three original ribands The Order of the Plumb Blossom The Taeguk Order of Merit The Order of the Eight Tigrams Cheers James

My guess is that not all, but some of them seem to be. The colours are also wrong, the green leaves in the originals I have seen are very much darker. The metal work looks quite "heavy" whereas the originals are much more delicate. But then, photography and bright-lights can play tricks, so one cannot be completely sure unless one can compare originals with these side by side in real life. Cheers James