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Braided shoulder boards with Petar II monogram.

White Eagle with Swords! Unfortunately I don't remember where are these images from, most probably ebay.

Albanian Retreat Medal, this particular example is published in Car/Muhić book with the following description "Minted with the same mold as C Marey's but without signature and partially silvered." Photos published by the author on a certain Slovenian forum. Comparison - the resemblance is more than obvious.

Thank you very much, those catalogs might help us find the missing piece of the puzzle! Let's start for the beginning, WW1 Commemorative Medal, Rob showed us one example from his collection with the following description: "It has been tentatively attributed to the French manufacturer, located in Paris, M. Delande although this has yet to be confirmed." Here's a comparison. Photo found here.

Much better photo (I'm not sure where's it from) with visible monogram.

Speaking of which, here are vojvoda Bojović's epaulettes from a latter period. Notice the barely visible metal application underneath the eagle, that's monogram of Aleksandar I worn by his adjutants.

Vojvoda Stepa Stepanović's šajkača cap and vojvoda Mišić's braided shoulder boards, Belgrade Military Museum Source

Vojvoda Živojin Mišić's braided shoulder boards (I'm not sure if that is the proper English term), Kingdom of Serbia era, Belgrade Military Museum

Few items, I believe kept in the Belgrade Military Museum. Blouse, overcoat and French Bleu horizon.

Amazing! Many thanks for sharing your findings with us! Are there other Serbian decorations in that catalog?

Great job, my sincere compliments!

Don't mention it, glad to help when I can. Best regards

My apologies, I completely forgot to post that photo of general Franasović. It's unusual to see he wore such a "short" medal bar, he must have had more decorations. Anyway photo was made in 1896, I think his military carrier ended the following year when he was retired for the second time. It's interesting to mention that he was the Chancellor of the Royal Orders from 1903 until 1905.

I forgot to mention this yesterday, but once I saw Red Cross on the bar I thought that's it, you are probably right about that one. We can often see officers wearing Red Cross Order in front of all medals, and not only officers, even Milan and Aleksandar Obrenović sometimes did the same. Anyway, really amazing medal bar, something we don't see very often. Too bad that there are not that many photos of officers from that era available online, otherwise we might be able to determine to whom it belonged.

Amazing set of documents, especially second one signed by Blaznavac! I understand what you mean, about medals being aligned, but we can see that there's the same issue with Montenegrin medal. Silver Bravery Medal is always problematic because of its small dimensions, but there's also that type with suspension ring. I might be wrong but I still think Medal for Heroism isn't the medal on 7th place therefore it might not be the case of over 40 years of service. I don't know what were regulations like back then, but for example one of my ancestors was retired as colonel in 1899 at the age of 61 after 32 years of service in the Serbian army plus 7 more before that in Austria (he was born in what is now Northern Serbia). Anyway there are examples of officers serving over 40 years, how often did that happen in practice I can't say. There's a medal bar with those two Montenegrin medals in Car/Muhić book. I think that's the only Serbian bar with Medal for Heroism I've seen so far. The medal in question is suspended from the same type of ribbon, red, blue and white one, but as I said before all of the sources that are available to me say it had a different ribbon...

Don't mention it, thank you for sharing such a beautiful medal bar with us! Now that you have mentioned it, we should check what do regulations say about having both IV and V Takovo on a medal bar. If I remember well Red Cross Order was supposed to be worn on the last place. I am aware of the fact that foreign decorations were to be worn after domestic ones but when we look at the photos of officers from that era we can see some of them didn't comply with that regulation. Also Montenegrin Commemorative Medal from 1862 "For Heroism" according to several authors had different ribbon... Petar I Coronation Medal was not to to be put immediately after the orders, Bravery medals were also in front of it. 1893 Medal was to be awarded to the King, members of the Government and National Assembly. The only officer among them was Dragutin Franasović, Minister of War. I found a photo of him from 1896 and that's definitely not his medal bar. Constitution of 1888 doesn't give active nor passive right to vote to members of the military, so they couldn't have been members of the National Assembly. Perhaps the King awarded some of these medals to other individuals but all of the sources I have say the same thing, King, Government, National Assembly.

I have no idea, "trial piece" doesn't sound very likely to me, what trial 70 years after institution? Maybe if there was an idea of instituting golden class of this medal during WW1, but I haven't heard of it before. So, a factory mistake?

Greetings, Very impressive medal bar, I think I've seen it before online. You probably nailed most of the decorations, here's my opinion: 1) White Eagle V not IV 2) Most likely Takovo IV or V with swords, but I wouldn't completely exclude Legion of Honor or some other foreign decoration 3) Perhaps Takovo IV, if so then: 4) Takovo V and 5) Golden Bravery Medal from 1877 6) Montenegrin Silver Bravery Medal 7) Silver Bravery Medal (1876, 1877-78 or 1885-86?) 8) Petar I Coronation Medal? The rest is clear...

I just noticed an interesting auction, Golden Medal for Zeal, 1895 type, made by "V. Mayer's Söhne" with box and document! I don't remember seeing documents for these medals before... LINK

Don't mention it, glad to help. Best regards

Here's a page from the Official Gazette (Службени лист) with Yugoslav hallmarks, small silver hallmarks with rooster are in the fourth raw. Anyway very nice set, my congrats!

"Ordes and Medals of the Communist Albania" (Ордена и медали коммунистической Албании) contains a mistake regarding silver hallmarks. Description given bellow is wrong. It should be like this: Rooster in square = 950/1000 Rooster in pentagon = 900/1000 Rooster in hexagon = 800/1000 Cover of the book LINK

Golden Sliver Bravery Medal? Any ideas about this one? LINK Description: Medal in bronze and fire gilded, 36.6mm, unmarked, but of typical WW1 period French manufacture (maker is unknown), in near mint condition, rare. Footnote: this medal is issued officially in silver only, this being possibly a trial piece.

If I'm not mistaken 1st class is made out of .950 silver (silver fineness hallmark - rooster in square).

Ribbon bars, earlier vs. newer, obvious difference in size.