Royal Order of Saint Alexander - post-abdication award issues

[ilieff]

Hi all,

I am a researcher on Bulgarian royal awards and I am currently trying to find any evidence of decorations with the Royal Order of Saint Alexander after the Communist coup in Bulgaria (Post 1947). I believe I've seen a photograph of examples which are believed to be such decorations but I can no longer find these in the forums. Plus, how plausible is it for these to have actually been bestowed upon?

Thank you for your time.

Regads,

Yan 

[paul wood]

Here is an example of the 3rd class and various 4th and 5th classes + a picture showing the Military Merit in a communist group. I hope this helps. Paul

 

[ilieff]

1 hour ago, paul wood said:

Here is an example of the 3rd class and various 4th and 5th classes + a picture showing the Military Merit in a communist group. I hope this helps. Paul

 

Hi Paul,

Thank you for the photos, but I did not mean the Republican issues. I am well aware of these. I meant if there were any examples of orders which have been awarded by the Bulgarian King Simeon II while in exile in Egypt/Spain?

By rule, he remains the grand master of the both SS Cyil and Methodius and St. Alexander orders and while for the former there are confirmed decorations, I could not track any of the latter. 

Cheers,

[paul wood]

I am not aware of King Simeon awarding Orders of St. Alexander and SS Cyril and Methodius while in Spain outside of family members. He was a very successful businessman in his own right and a charming an very unassuming person who I had the privilege to meet in the late 1980's.

Paul

 

[922F]

Paul is quite correct concerning Simeon's personality; I  had the pleasure of meeting him several times in the 1980's.  In general, Simeon restricted awards of his Orders to family members or very intimate family retainers.  

However, in the late 1960's through early '80's he presented St. Alexander Grand Cross insignia to a few heads of state or government including Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines [January, 1968].  Image attached.   At about the same time Chiang Kai-shek may have received the same decoration but it is not exposed at his museum.   Further, Simeon may have awarded either a Cyril & Methodius or a St. Alexander to the Shah of Iran [1971] and King Hassan [Morroco-1985] as well. 

Various 'royalist' magazines, Point de vue, Hola and Oggi for example, published images of several individuals including King Michael [Romania] and Umberto II [Italy] wearing what appear to be Cyril & Methodius collars at functions relating to or hosted by Simeon in the early 1960s-'70's.  Perhaps these two received the Order before 1944.  Seem to recall that their collars had the 'narrow-arm, simple flame' badge type.  Perhaps similar images for Umberto at http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums/f207/king-simeon-ii-of-bulgaria-and-margarita-gomez-acebo-y-cejuela-21-january-1962-a-5309.html but these currently seem to be inaccessible.  I do not believe that Michael attended Simeon's wedding.  

Condecoraciones Cejalvo of Madrid unquestionably manufactured St. Alexander insignia in all grades [pictured in the 1970's Order Statutes published in Madrid] and may have made 'narrow-arm, simple flame' Cyril and Methodius badges for Simeon's use.  Several recent auctions offered Cejalvo type St. Alexander insignia [a civil commander and a civil grand cross set].   

Image of a Cejalvo manufactured civil commander made about 1976-77.  Note the Danilo Order type surround circling the obverse center medallion disc and lack of detail to suspension crown infulae reverse.   

Edited January 13, 2016 by 922F
correct edit

[ilieff]

A great 'Thank you!', 922F.

That's the sort of information I was looking for. Much appreciated!

By the way, are there any larger/better quality images around of the awards themselves? I am willing to add a photographic reference to my article.

Regards,

Yan

[paul wood]

Thanks so much for the information, certainly unlike some other former royals, he has not been bestowing orders liberally.

Paul

[Graf]

Hi,

 

Here are two Orders by Sejalvo

 

Regards

 

Graf

[new world]

On 1/13/2016 at 00:43, 922F said:

...Various 'royalist' magazines, Point de vue, Hola and Oggi for example, published images of several individuals including King Michael [Romania] and Umberto II [Italy] wearing what appear to be Cyril & Methodius collars at functions relating to or hosted by Simeon in the early 1960s-'70's.  Perhaps these two received the Order before 1944.  Seem to recall that their collars had the 'narrow-arm, simple flame' badge type. 

 

 

Both got their Cyril & Methodius awards before Simeon's exile:

Umberto of Italy received C&M award in 1930 (he was a Crown Prince then) - Small Collar/Chain and Grand Cross.

Michael of Romania was also awarded during Tsarist period (don't have the exact year) - Small Collar/Chain and Grand Cross.

[922F]

Thanks to all contributors.    Simeon's chancellery in Madrid had a register of decorations Simeon had awarded up to as late as 1977-78.   I do not have a copy of it but believe that a copy was deposited at the National Library of Spain, the British Library, the Library of Congress, and other repositories along with the reprinted St. Alexander statutes.

Graf, does the Cyril and Methodius insignia have any hall or maker's marks?  Are the ribbon suspension ring and lack of enamel on the reverse flames identifiers for Celjavo?  
 

[Graf]

Hi 922F,

 

I do not have this Order in my collection

The pictures are from my files from recent Auctions.

Both Ferdinand and Boris II Models are much more elaborated then the one shown above

Both Orders have complex flamed badges with both sides of the flames enameled

 

Here are the Ferdinand- picture 1 and

Boris IIi Orders pictures 2 and 3

 

Graf

 

[ilieff]

Hi Graf,

You are correct about the high quality of the badges of both Ferdinand I and Boris III. This order has only been bestowed upon (about) 60 people in total prior to 1946 and I don't think we can speak about emissions in the general term. According to the literature on this topic, two companies manufactures the order - Rothe&Neffe and Zimermann so most certainly there will be at least two variations in design. Not quite sure whether the non-enamelled reverse flames are a Celjavo feature but I don't think we'll know the correct answer, unless a full-scale research is made on this topic (which apparently is yet to be done as the Bulgarian authors have not settled on a single resolution on this matter).

Regarding the above photographs, I believe that it's the other way round - the last two are of the period of Ferdinand I and the first is of Boris III issue. As I said, it's highly risky to label these badges with the usual term 'emission' as most of these have been produced one-at-a-time upon the request of the monarch. However, the example above bears the royal cypher of Ferdinand on its case, which speaks of the 1909-1918 period, but could well be of a later issue with a stock case from the chancellery.

Regards,

 

 

[922F]

This thread seems to be heading towards discussion of Cyril & Methodius Order insignia as well as St. Alexander Orders!

 

Ilieff appears to be  correct, in my belief, regarding varieties of the Cyril & Methodius Order insignia.

There appear to be [now] three major badge, and star, variants with two sub-types of the first two variants.  

Gary Krug informed me in 1965 that he and Dr, Paprikoff [at that time the most knowledgeable expert on Bulgarian decoration in the West] conducted a study of this decoration based on examples in various collections.  Krug published a July-August 1959 [Vol 10, number 4] page 2-5 note in the OMSA publication "The Medal Collector" illuminating the issue.   Further research by Dr Klietmann led to identification of 2 major types, each with 2 models, of this Order insignia, which idea seems to be embraced by various Bulgarian and Austrian scholars albeit not directly stated as such.  Mr. Acovic published a study, unfortunately not to hand now; do not recall if he described these types or commented upon them.   Works by Romanoff, Denkov, P. Pavlov and T. Petrov do not specifically address these type or variant differences to my recollection.  At any rate, now with Graf's Cejalvo example we seem to have another major type.

Graf's post 11, second image illustrates what Krug and Klietmann called the first type, made by Rothe & Neffe,   This classification determined by examining insignia awarded in 1908 to personalities like von Bülow and Austrian archdukes.   The real differentiation identification factor was the case...these first issues cases had a raised gilt & enamel Bulgarian Czarist crown affixed to the outer lid.   The second type, also by Rothe, has the same quality insignia but the case lacks the crown on the case lid.   Possibly the seraph heads have a lower quality design execution and brownish hair versus blondish hair according to Robert McNamara.   McNamara also posited that only awards bestowed in 1908 had the metal crown on the outer lid but others thought this type case was given to the first 10 recipients.   

Third type insignia, made by Zimmerman probably in the mid-1920s, looks like Graf's post 11 above, first image.  This type exhibits a deeper blue shade to cross enamel, less well defined seraph detail, and a different, less complex flame element between star cross arms.  Flame elements on the badge are not as full or  convex/concave as Rothe pieces.  Central image painting is less well defined as is the quality of the badge reverse cipher.  Overall, to me, not as elegant as the first two types.

Fourth third type insignia, manufactured by Rothe, resemble third type but exhibit noticeable difference in detail and enamel work quality [lower].  This type insignia could be bought directly from Rothe as late as 1975.  From about 1960, however, silk sash ribbon stock in the original orange hue seems to be replaced by a much darker or muddier hue rayon stock.  

As always noting is as simple as it seems.  The Cyril and Methodius sets presented to von Ribbentrop seem to be of the first type!

Graf's post 8 seems to combine elements of the first major variant [overall shape and blue enamel color] and variant two [design of the flames between the cross armsl.  The reverse center seems to be dark red or blue, another distinguishing feature.   So maybe we now have a 3rd major variant?