Lady's Red Cross Gold Order of Merit

[Dieter3]

A bit harder to come by than most. I really like the simplified pin style of the rosette and the ribbon. This one is in really nice condition, rosette's a bit dirty but not damaged. The medal and case are really nice:

[Dieter3]

This 110K limit thing is killin' me....

[Dieter3]

[Brian Wolfe]

Absolutely stunning.

Regards

Brian

[Josef Rietveld]

a real eyecatcher. i always found the jrc-decorations highly underestimated in comparism to their carftmanship.

josef

[drclaw]

Hey Dieter, another beautiful addition to your collection

Knowing very little about these Red Cross Orders, are their variations in the design of the medal and the case that would help you date them?

Hazarding a guess, I'd say the old style kanji of the case suggests Meiji?

[Dieter3]

Hey Dieter, another beautiful addition to your collection

Knowing very little about these Red Cross Orders, are their variations in the design of the medal and the case that would help you date them?

Hazarding a guess, I'd say the old style kanji of the case suggests Meiji?

Not Meiji!

To the other question, well, yes and no. There are variations in the medals that can give clues as to the date - EX: the style of hook and catch used and how they are attached to ribbon. By my observations, earlier red cross medals in general seem to have the hook in particular sewn to the outside surface of the ribbon's backside, vs. later pieces incorporating it into the folds of the ribbon. Older ribbons also vary in the hue of the stripes - it seems that older pieces have darker blue stripes as opposed to lighter blue or gray/light gray stripes. You never really know how accurate colors are, especially on old things, but some other items I've collected with depictions of the medals (like postcards and things) from the Meiji period show the medals with darker stripes, and later cards (like Showa era) seem to show them with lighter strips. When exactly these transitions were made is certainly unknown to me!!

The only thing I can state with reasonable confidence, and Paul and Rich could probably back this up, is that in 1956 it seems there was a revamping of Red Cross rules and regulations and this was when the actual gold Special Memberships and Gold Order of merit were established. Up to that point, the Order was simply referred to as a Meritorious Award or a Special Membership award, and all were in silver. According to some red cross documentation that I have, in 1956 the RC began to distinguish between actual gold and silver awards - and adopted the kanji to indicate this - 金色 (Gold Color) and 銀色 (Silver Color). So if I've got my info straight, all gold awards you find were issued in/after 1956. So this award, if I had to hazard a guess, is late 50's or early 60's. A hazardous guess though, it's hard to say.

The simple pin attachment is somewhat of a clue - rather than the safety pin style, I think this was adopted to save in material use, possibly during the war and then afterwards for many years while things were tough and resources were more scarce in Japan - I have no written evidence to back this up, but at some point, there was a shift back to the more standard safety pin attachment that you find on clearly more modern orders, both gold and silver, the ones that are in what I refer to as a "leatherette" case - the black ones with the gold rims where the case halves meet. One other thing you can say, the thinner cases for men's awards are earlier ones too. The more modern cases are of the same width for both men's and women's awards with a simple interior change and the addition of a small gold circle below the first column of kanji to indicate at a glance that the case is for a woman's award (or at least I've never seen this circle on a man's award, so what else could it be for?) Makes manufacturing more standardized. But when specifically this change took place, I know not. If I had to hazard a guess, perhaps the 1970s.

I'm getting long winded here, let me attempt to wrap up!! YES - there are differences in the medallion design as well - dimensional changes in the small enameled cross, changes in the bird, the suspension ball, and some other minor ones, but to what era are they linked??? Got me! There are simply far too few of these with their original award documents to be able to build an accurate picture. One does find a number of basic membership certificates, but not often with an actual medal. Certificates for orders of merit by themselves are really rare from what I can tell, though the orders themselves are quote common despite the actual cost to the original recipient!! If I had to guess, I'd say more of these were handed out for meritorious services than actual donations - again, speculation that I base solely on how common they are. Some variants are not common at all, but as a whole, these are easy to find and in good to excellent condition.

This one below is probably an earlier order, but again - no idea to which era - but the kanji style is clearly different on the case, an earlier style, what appears to be leather wrapped on wood. The stripes are darker (albeit, faded on most of the front), but not as dark as they come, and the hook is externally sewn. Too bad the central disc is missing from the reverse! The enamel on this cross is also not flush with the metal, it is recessed to a degree (apparently earlier Sacred Sacred Treasures also had recessed enamel, but not sure if that indicates anything.) Note the lack of kanji indicating silver or gold. I certainly welcome all comments and/or corrections!!

[Josef Rietveld]

Here is another early one on womans bow. The kanji seems similiar to the last one shown by dieter. Which one is older? I guess mine.

The boxcoverage is made of leather. The box itself is higher than pieces in laquerbox.

regards

josef

[Josef Rietveld]

details

[Josef Rietveld]

inside

[Josef Rietveld]

reverse

[drclaw]

Very nice Josef!

I don't collect these but must seriously think about picking one up now.

They are among the nicest medals ever made.

Gavin

[lambert]

UAU!!!

Lambert

[Dieter3]

Here is another early one on womans bow. The kanji seems similiar to the last one shown by dieter. Which one is older? I guess mine.

The boxcoverage is made of leather. The box itself is higher than pieces in laquerbox.

regards

josef

Hi Josef,

Very nice! I'm guessing that our two are from the same time. One key feature they seem to share - the small red cross - it's "fat"!! Later pieces all seem to have a cross of different dimensions. One other feature that's hard to see in the pics. is that the enamel is also somewhat recessed, not flush with the metal like later pieces. (Is yours??) Your medal is much nicer than mine as mine is missing the center part on the reverse and the stripes have faded on the front of the ribbon. These two though with the leather-wrapped cases are very uncommon best I can tell, especially the woman's version. Fantastic piece! (Let me know if you want to sell it ever!! ).

Edited May 23, 2011 by Dieter3

[Josef Rietveld]

Hi Dieter, glad you like it as i do.

I have three jrc silver-crosses (old, taisho (?) and post 1945) and tried to compare the enamel quality. Just from the enamel i can't see big differences on the front side.

The big difference is the backside. The old cross shows thicker enamel then the others. The enamels surface is not completely plain. It seems as when the kanji-characters are a bit like tent poles and the enamel is the tarp stretched on the poles. I hope this is understandable.

I guess they needed some time to get to know how to make real good enamel.

regards

josef

PS: i will keep ypur name in mind if i ever decide to sell this one

[Dieter3]

PS: i will keep ypur name in mind if i ever decide to sell this one

Thanks! The Red Cross medals have got to be my favorite subgroup of Japanese medals.