JapanX

Two rare and very interesting photos 1

Very picturesque!

Very cool photo

Shichang and the gang ;)

Li Yuan-hung without Grand Order ...

The only photo of Li Yuan-hung with Grand Order

In gorgeous Technicolor ... :lol:

Table classic On the right ... ...and on the left

Another photo with diplomates

With american diplomates on the day of Rubublic recognition by US

Very interesting and rare photo

Order close up 1 2

Time to take a look at cavaliers Yuan Shikai 1 2

The diameter of breast star is 105 mm The diameter of badge is 75 mm All pearls are lost, breast star central medallion is lost, but this piece is still unbelievable! If you like the miracles of magic lantern please go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=StZbk4Ztq_A

Badge obverse

Breast star 2

Ok. Time to take a close look at the headliner of this thread! Grand Order of Li Yuan-hung... Straight from the grave… Breast star 1

Interesting how organizers described Grand Order… Breast star was described as “Medal of Grand Order” Badge was described as “Medal of 12-motif Order of Honour” Dilettantism at its best! It looks like breast star lost its original central medallion (souvenir for Red Guards?) and someone very bright in Hubei (or Hong Kong) Museum decided to use reverse medallion of the badge as replacement … Ingenious!!!

At last! The real treasure!

Li Yuan-hung uniform 1 Li Yuan-hung uniform 2 Li Yuan-hung uniform 3 Li Yuan-hung uniform on display in Hubei Provincial Museum

Stand

Until very recently these design drawings (from books published at the turn of the last century) were all we have on this order. Everything was changed in 2011 when Hong Kong Museum of History decided to commemorate centenary of the 1911 Revolution and opened an exhibition titled “Centenary of China's 1911 Revolution” (it was held at Museum from March 2, 2011 until May 16, 2011). Among others unique relics they exhibited Grand Order that belonged to Li Yuan-hung (actually he was buried with it)! This order currently is in the collection of the Hubei Provincial Museum. Back in the glorious days of Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution the tomb of Li Yuan-hung was vandalized by famous Red Guards. Members of Hubei Museum staff learned about these “excavations” and (luckily for us) were able to convince these “archaeologists” to donate tomb relics to the museum. Among them were saber, Li Yuan-hung uniform and medals, gold coins, silver ingot, etc. Here we have some interesting shots from this exhibition.

This borrowing was easy, quick and painless. Painless because there weren’t many Imperial Grand Orders awarded and they were too recent to be closely associated with “old, rotten regime”. That’s why the image of Grand Order was used even on postcards that were issued in celebration of Yuan Shikai`s inauguration as president of the Republic.

To red ribbon

And of course the ribbon colour was changed by our “revolutionaries”. From ribbon emperor colour