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This nice gravure depicts a friendly chat (or maybe not so friendly after all) that our hero had with German Emperor William I back in 1872
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Receiving amnesty in 1857, he returned to Hungary and joined forces with the middle-of-the-road liberals. Together with Francis Deák and Count Beust, he participated in the preparation and execution of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867. This agreement established the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, or Dual Monarchy. Andrássy was appointed prime minister and minister of defense of the new Hungarian government. He was convinced that Hungary's territorial integrity was gravely endangered by Russian-supported nationalistic stirrings among the empire's Slavic minorities and by Russia's own designs on the Balkans. He sought to neutralize this danger by strengthening and perpetuating the German-Hungarian leadership in the monarchy and by increasingly relying on Germany's support. In 1871 Andrássy became foreign minister of the Dual Monarchy, and he worked with much success to strengthen the empire's international position. In the interest of this policy, he agreed to a partial rapprochement with Russia in the form of the Three Emperors' League (1872), but he made certain that Austria-Hungary's interests would be protected in the Balkan entanglement that followed the crisis of 1875.
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I hope these interesting daguerreotypes will give our colleagues a nice idea about the looks of our hero back in those days.
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Julius Andrássy was born into a distinguished Hungarian aristocratic family at Kassa (now Košsice in Slovakia) on March 3, 1823. As a young man, he supported the policies of the moderate reformer Count Stephen Széchenyi. Later, however, he switched to the more radical Louis Kossuth, who opposed Austrian control of Hungary and advocated Hungarian nationalism. In 1848 Andrássy took part in the Hungarian revolution against Austria. After Hungary's defeat he lived in exile in Paris and London. He was actually condemned to death in absentia by the Austrian government for his share in this revolt in 1851. But by the mid-1850s Andrássy had become an advocate of a Hungarian compromise with Austria.
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Gyula Count Andrássy de Csíkszentkirály et Krasznahorka a.k.a. Count Julius Andrassy (3 March 1823 – 18 February 1890) and his Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun order will be the heroes of our today story. Thanks to generous decision of our colleague Pieter1012 to show the photos of this extra rare piece from his collection. But before we’ll go straight to the treasure, let’s have a quick tour through distinguished career of the recipient.
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Ok. An important correction from my friend, who knows much more about Japan than I ever will "Your explanation of the purpose of the converted order is however a little foggy, though I doubt whether many readers of the forum will notice. An obijime is the accessory itself, often made of coral, ivory or a combination of pearls in a silver setting, fixed upon the rope. It functions like a brooch for ladies in Europe and has merely a decorative function. The ropes you show are obihimo's ropes to keep the obi in place during wear and not obijime's, and finally the obi you show is for a yukata. The obi this obijime is intended for is the wide, thick piece of cloth, often very decorative, that is wound round the waist of a women when she wears the formal kimono." I would like to thank him for this interesting and important correction! Cheers, Nick
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Nice touch... Never knew he was rice merchant...
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And not once! At least four big issues between early 70s and late 80s! Any medal you see on the market - 99,99999% probability that it is post war replica. Cheers, Nick
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Dear Peter, did you actually read this thread from the very beginning? I am afraid they (whoever "they" might be) actually knew what they are doing. The work is too professional and quite unified (especially in case of rising suns). And yes, We can dated (more or less accurate) all of them. They come from different epochs (1900-1945) - most of them from 30s. So this is another argument for war-loot-remade-after-the-war hypothesis. But we should remember, that after the WWII prestige of orders in Japanese society was at all time low. They say you could buy first class rising sun order only for 20 kilos of rice and bordellos used orders as awards for the best performing whores... Also after war living standards were quite low, so it's quite natural to expect creation of some kind low cost substitute for jewelry... Regards, Nick
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Very interesting that this 3rd class converted St. Anne story gives us clear idea of how similar were reasons behind the conversions of orders in different countries. In case of japanese orders converted by americans after WW II we’ve got a clear cut case of hypothesis № 2. That`s all for today. Cheerio, Nick
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That’s why hypothesis № 2 and № 3 sound more realistic to me. I think № 3 is the most probable one.
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№ 1 is too weak for my taste. I made some inquiries and was told that there was a thin probability of awarding of Japanese official with standard version of the order - not with special version for non-Christians. For curious ones here comes the central tablet of this order for latter version.
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There are at least three competing hypothesis Romantic № 1. This piece was awarded to japanese civil official and after his death it was converted by his wife into nice and useful trinket. Romantic № 2. This piece came to Japan as war loot (most probably from 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War) and was presented to the wife of our hero and converted (before or after the presentation) into nice and useful trinket. Romantic № 3. This piece came to Japan by that, or the other way after 1917 October Revolution (with a huge wave of immigrants or by the hands of Siberia expedition participant) and was sold in antic shop (it might be converted before or after this sell).
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I hope these pictures gave you the general idea of the real purpose of conversion. Now let's discuss the provenance of this converted piece.
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And obijime in another style (round obijime are more formal than this flat one and plain, solid colors are more formal than patterned).
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What was the purpose of this modernization? Let me remind you that it "had been converted into an obijime (accessory) for on the obihime (rope around the obi)." What??? Obijime is a thin rope attached to an obi. Obi is a kimono sash. Ok, ok. Let's go visual!