French order help. Military Order of Notre Dame of Sorrow?

[Welshdoc]

Hi all, I know very little about this breast star exept its 9cm accross silver and enamel the Orders and Medals Society of America (OMSA) have it identifies as "the Military Order of Notre Dame of Sorrow". It may also be called "the Royal Sovereign Military order of our lady of Mercy". .Any information would be gratefuly received. I bought it as it is so pretty rather than having any idea what it represents.

[922F]

Order of Our Lady of Mercy and the Redemption of the Captives / la Orden de Nuestra Señora de la Merced y la Redención de los Cautivos / Ordo Beatæ Mariæ Virginis de Redemptione Captivorum AKA Order of Our Lady of Mercy, Order of Our Lady of Sorrow, and other varients on this style.

Insignia of a 'revival' of a secular 'branch' of a Roman Catholic religious order [dates from 1218]. An award for 'charity'. Recognized by some Roman Catholic authories. Semi-Active in Portugal, Italy, and related nations; more active in Spain and related countries. Offshoots exist of varying degrees of rectitude. Guy Stair Sainty and other 'self-styled Orders experts' discuss these entities in print and on-line--try Google.

This particular item appears to be of very recent Chinese origin manufactured by the same folks who bring us odd looking Striped Tiger stars, among other things. They also produce a copy of the Italian Republic's Merit Order first type star.

Edited February 25, 2012 by 922F

[JapanX]

Hi Welshdoc!

Could you please post the reverse of this piece?

Cheers,

Nick

P.S. 922F forgot to mention another nice reference http://gmic.co.uk/index.php/topic/35604-religious-grand-officer-set/

[922F]

Thank you, Nick! Am not with references at present and, indeed, forgot that page existed.

Here's an image of the copy Italian Merit star:

and reverse image

Edited February 26, 2012 by 922F

[Welshdoc]

Hi thanks all for th information. I didnt think for a minute such an obscure item would be a fake. Just shows stay with what you know (in my case WW1 British). Still it looks good on display.

[JapanX]

Yep.

This is the same "manufacturer".

Strange choice of orders though.

They even used the same base star for both orders

Thank you for showing!

And here we have original International Merit Order breast star (another name for this prototype )

All original breast stars have all rays in brilliant cut.

[JapanX]

Original

[Veteran]

Hello everyone

Discussing rencently manufactured badges and stars is an interesting topic in its own right.

But I just cannot see what this particular one has to do with France. Can you ?

Regards to all

Veteran

Edited February 28, 2012 by Veteran

[JapanX]

Hello everyone

Discussing rencently manufactured badges and stars is an interesting topic in its own right.

But I just cannot see what this particular one has to do with France. Do you ?

Regards to all

Veteran

Hi Veteran

This thread certainly belongs to the "Rest of the World" section of the forum (since there are no "International Orders section").

Hopefully moderators will move this thread to appropriate section

Cheers,

Nick