A particular Officer’s Military Service Decoration

[Carlo]

Hello everyone, today I want to show a particular piece from my collection: an officer service cross for 25 years of military service with mother-of-pearl inlay on the back.

In particular, this cross is marked on the ring with Diana's head and the number 2 without the letter, which places it before 1872.

It is also marked GR (Gebr. Resch) on the back of the ribbon ring and AAA on the rim of the ribbon ring.

I'm not sure what the AAA mark means, having never seen it on other decorations, maybe someone who knows more than me knows what it means.

As far as I know marked crosses are quite rare, do any of you have any in your collection? I've searched a lot but I've never seen anything like it.

 

 

Carlo

 

[Farkas]

Hi Carlo,

 

From what i can find...

the separate head and number 2 indeed place it from 1867 to 1872.

& As I understand it, the ‘A’ (Vienna) stamp is not a makers mark, these were added by the ‘Assay office’ who were responsible for confirming items were silver/material as claimed.

There is, as you said, no A A A mark... yet you have one!

 

Looking at your picture i would suggest an explanation is the poor application of the first two ‘A’ stamps and then the third was acceptable.

 

Bearing in mind the ‘A’ stamp is not the work of the meticulous maker but a bureaucratic addition by the assay office I would say maybe this is the case.

 

 

And it’s a lovely piece 👍

 

tony

 

 

[Stogieman]

I had one of these cased years ago, they are beautiful