Website for Royal Bulgarian awards

[jaba1914]

Great work Ilieff. I love your website.

I have an imperial pilot badge that I can offer for your page. Let me know if you are interessted.

Kind regards

Alex

[Nicolas7507]

Just discovered your website aswell.

Questions about Bulgarian Awards I had for ages, got answered within a few minutes.

Thanks for your great work

 

Regards,

Nicolas

[ilieff]

Thank you all, I am flattered.

Graf, regarding your question - I am not too sure yet as I am currently at the stage of planning and gathering information. Considering the current design in place, I assume that the presentation of documents/cases would follow the set guidelines, hence I assume single images would be better. Also, it will be good to quote document/case sizes in centimetres or inches, if applicable.

jaba1914, Thanks, unfortunately (of perhaps fortunately), the scope of the website is set to orders, medals and distinctions, at present.

 

PS: If you'd like to communicate and/or send in images privately, please do so at admin@bulgariandecorations.com

[ilieff]

Dear members,

Following your suggestions, I am now trying to collect some image samples of the awarding document and cases for the various decorations.

Understandably, I am having trouble finding some of the 'rare birds', like for example documents and cases for the Bravery order.

I was only able to find images of cases of up to 3rd class 2nd grade. Is any of you able to provide an image of a 3rd class 1st grade box? I assume it's the same as the 4th class 1st grade, only the class mark being III instead of IV?

Regards,

Ilieff

[Igor Ostapenko]

On 21.02.2017 at 10:01, Igor Ostapenko said:

Great site , thank you !!!  

If you need - picture of Order of Romanian King  

 

If you need - orders of another King

 

[Igor Ostapenko]

and one another order of some King

Edited April 2, 2017 by Igor Ostapenko

[922F]

Igor,

Thanks for your postings!  Are your post 30 additions still on display in the National Museum, Цетиње?  At one point the jeweled Civil Merit suite was attributed to the Queen and the St. Alex collar attached to it attributed to the Crown Prince.  Later the collar and badge were attributed to the Queen as a one-off award.  There was also a French Agriculture Merit Order [commander size insignia] on a sash, supposedly another one-off given to the King in 1910 since he already had the Legion of Honor GC.  Any clarification on those claims??   

[new world]

Wow! 

That Civil Merit with diamonds is stunning!!!

[ilieff]

Thanks, Igor.

Wow

[new world]

hello ilieff,

I saw this passage on your web site in reference to Bravery Order:

" The First Class of the Military Order was the highest class until the introduction of the 1st class 1st grade in 1886. The introduction of the new, higher grade of the order meant that the old-style 1st class set had to be renamed to 1st class 2nd grade, in order to make the distinction between the two highest classes. Even so, throughout the history of the Order “For Bravery”, the 1st class 2nd grade set was simply referred to as ‘1st Class’. "

Where did this information come from?

Do you have examples/pics to illustrate the difference between 1st and 2nd grade of 1st class?

 

 

[ilieff]

21 hours ago, new world said:

Where did this information come from?

Do you have examples/pics to illustrate the difference between 1st and 2nd grade of 1st class?

Hi new world,

Information in this regard is present in most of the books on Bulgarian orders, including Pavlov's one (Who is actually citing Petrov). In T.Petrov's books, it is also mentioned of the 'legend' of how the 1st class 1st grade (Grand cross) was 'unintentionally' created when it was presented to Emperor Alexander II of Russia.

 

In order to prevent any confusion, think of the 1st Class 1st Grade as 'Grand Cross'. 

 

Due to the low number of official 1st class 1st grades (I only know of 4 examples), any conclusions will be pure speculation.

T.Petrov had access to the two earlier samples kept at the Military Museum in Sofia, while Prince Romanov had access to the King's collection which includes the two badges worn by King Ferdinand. Due to this fact, both authors give different measurements to the size of Grand cross badges.

 

I, personally, consider that there are no major differences between the badges of the two grades (Stars are a different story). Of course, there are minimal variances in size, material and style but this is due to the different manufacturers, rather than intentionally set sizes and shapes.

In WW1, the King has officially unified the sizes of both grades (as per Pertov again) to 61mm. However, I have no idea what's the logic behind this, as practically nobody can be awarded the 1st Grade anyway. It might be just a way to set a unified size for the 2nd Grade going forward.

 

Thanks,

 

Edited August 12, 2017 by ilieff