Orders, Decorations and Medals

A fine ‘Napoleonic Wars’ group of six awarded to Paul Lambert Van den Maesen

France, First Empire, Legion of Honour, 3rd type, Chevalier’s breast badge, 56 x 36mm., silver, gold and enamel, lacks reverse centre, severe enamel damage, points bruised; Reign of Louis Philippe, Legion of Honour, Chevalier’s breast badge, 65 x 44mm., silver, gold and enamel, enamel damage; St. Helena Medal, bronze; ‘Veterans Cross’, 41 x 41mm., silver-gilt cross surmounted by crossed sabres, obverse centre with ‘N’ with military hat above, reverse centre bearing the cypher, ‘PVDM’; Emperor Napoleon I Funeral Commemorative Medal 1840, 41mm., bronze, unnamed, edge bruise; Netherlands, ‘St. Barbara Gilde Medal’, 55mm., silver, with ornate suspension, obverse inscribed, ‘Ste. Barbara Gilde aan P. L. Vandermaesen, Ridder van het Eerelegioen’, reverse engraved with crossed riffles and the inscription, ‘Ter gelegenheid van Zijn Vijftigjarig lidmaatschap 1827-1877 (?)’; pair of miniature dress medals: France, St. Helena Medal, bronze; Legion of Honour, First Empire, 4th type, silver, gold and enamel, enamel damage, mounted as worn from a gold brooch bar; Daguerreotype, of the recipient within a gilt oval frame, the clarity of the image is poor; fine and better (9) £600-800

The above mounted on an old pad by Gontier, Brussels, with damaged gilt frame surmounted by an imperial eagle. A label on the pad reverse reads, ‘Paul Lambert Van den Maesen, 1791-1881’.