Great Dane

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I have some full-sized Swedish jubilee- and commemorative medals that I planned on putting for sale on ebay this winter, because I want to refine my collection. One of them being the dark blue enamelled one mentioned above. Which ones are you looking for in particular?

The list in Thyen's book only lists him as "Hemsley, R." (entitled to the F.R. 1870 clasp), so not much help I'm afraid...

From my area of collecting: Recipients of the Danish Order of the Elephant who were also awarded the GC of the Danish Order of Dannebrog were required to wear the latter around the neck (on a neck ribbon). I would assume they would also wear the Dannebrog GC Star to distinguish it from a Commander 2nd class decoration - at least after the insignias of the GC and Commander became identical. Since the sash of the Elephant Order is worn from left shoulder to right hip and the Dannebrog from right shoulder to left hip, it also makes sense not to tempt some recipient with a lack of style sense to wear both sashes at the same time. Not many were awarded both decorations, but it only takes one to make it look ridiculous... 🤣

I can't tell you which is the most optimal method, but when my collection was put into 9 months storage and - after that - shipped across the pond, this is what I did: I had a pile of acid-free tissue paper lying around, so wrapped each object in a cut piece (letter/A4 size). Placed the wrapped objects in cardboard boxes (a little bigger than shoeboxes) and finally placed some bubble-wrap on the top to keep stuff in place before closing the lid. Then taped the lid to the box to keep it closed (and to indicate if it had been tampered with). Obviously that wouldn't stop things from moving around inside if someone shook a box violently, but for normal handling I assumed it would be fine. And even if stuff moved around inside, the objects would still be wrapped individually and not hit each other directly.

Yes, not an official medal, but awarded by the veteran's association (Life Guards), and thus the numbers awarded are not known. Someone put it on a Swedish ribbon (oh, the horror... 😁 ) Here is one on the correct ribbon and with the box (it is not mine):

Wessel, If I remember correctly, many of your medals are reproductions, so the "don't ever clean an original medal" may not apply as strict in your case? Basically, cleaning an original medal decreases its value significantly (unless it is covered in soil/rust). However, when cleaning yours of course you want to make sure they don't get damaged in the process...

Well, he does say "Das Original ist viel besser als die Fotos" (no reference to which original...)... 🤪

Well, provided the story is true... I think proper repair requires all of the blue enamel to be stripped off, thus diminishing its historical value...

The Danish Order of the Elephant. I believe the Queen has 2 versions - during a state visit from Britain a few years ago she contemplated wearing one of them, but gave up the idea due to the small enamel damage on both stars. (Photo: Jakub Kaja on Wikimedia)

Could the last one be the Austrian Red Cross decoration (without KD) or is that too far out? I guess the ribbon doesn't match...?

Do you know which auction house sold it?

No guesses, I'm afraid... Are you sure it's the same guy? The decorations seem to be almost completely different...

Brian, I really sympathize with you... a bag giving up has happened to me a lot too when trying to drag it to the curb. Especially when yard waste here is only collected every two weeks, so grass cuttings and weed is left in bags in my garage to simmer... and the contact between fermenting plant material and a cold concrete garage floor is a recipe for disaster - even dedicated yard waste bags become so wet that eventually they will disintegrate. I solved the problem by raising the bags a little (I had some surplus wardrobe wire shelves that I placed flat on a part of the garage floor). That prevents the warm material getting in contact with the cooler floor.

I'm guessing the sash is for the Russian Order of St. Stanislaus.