Netherlands Netherlands Military Order of William

[DutchBoy]

Known in Dutch as the Militaire Willemsorde. The order was founded in 1815 by King William I mainly for acts of bravery in the face of the enemy. It is the Netherlands' highest award, in 4 classes awarded according to military rank. All four grades outrank all other awards in the awards system of the Netherlands, and has been awarded quite sparingly for most of its existence.

Let me open this thread by posting some pics from the official Dutch website. The grades are: Grootkruis (Grand Cross), Commandeur (Commander), Officier (Officer), and Ridder (Knight).

Edited June 13, 2007 by DutchBoy

[DutchBoy]

Gentlemen,

Does anyone know whether there are any fakes of this order? Does this pre-war example look alright to you?

Edited June 12, 2007 by DutchBoy

[Jacky]

To me it looks alright,

Nice and undamaged, the type of the "burgundy cross", which is the green enamelled cross,

appears to be somewhat colonial-era to me, thus indeed pre-war.

Kind regards,

Jacky

p.s. may I ask you what you have paid for them?

Could you also show us a picture of the front of the box??

[DutchBoy]

Hi Jacky,

Thanks for the reply! It looks like a nice one to me. The box is a post-war type, blue cover with just a gilded crown. I have the same box style for my Oranje-Nassau grand cross from the 70s.

Not having been sure how much an MWO was worth, I bid too much! Erik Muller tells me it should have gone for considerably less. He has been very helpful with this item over pm's. They should be worth (I just found out) around $800-$900 or something around that.

Thijs.

To me it looks alright,

Nice and undamaged, the type of the "burgundy cross", which is the green enamelled cross,

appears to be somewhat colonial-era to me, thus indeed pre-war.

Kind regards,

Jacky

p.s. may I ask you what you have paid for them?

Could you also show us a picture of the front of the box??

[Roeland]

looks ok indeed, especially because the box looks original as well

Not having been sure how much an MWO was worth, I bid too much!

yesterday I saw one on marktplaats.nl on which people where bidding 1100,- euro!

can't find the add anymore though.

[DutchBoy]

Thanks Roeland,

The box is original but it's from a later period than the order, so the two don't go together. 1100 euro is roughly the figure that I paid ($1,500), so I don't feel too bad now.

Matthijs.

looks ok indeed, especially because the box looks original as well

yesterday I saw one on marktplaats.nl on which people where bidding 1100,- euro!

can't find the add anymore though.

[Jacky]

looks ok indeed, especially because the box looks original as well

yesterday I saw one on marktplaats.nl on which people where bidding 1100,- euro!

can't find the add anymore though.

Roeland, I saw that one too,

but that was a 3rd class, the officers class, however, it looked tiny to me and also missing a rosette

Whereas the one discussed here is a 4th class, the most encountered class.

But yes, high bids.....