Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The mounted group of twelve miniature dress medals attributed to Théophile Piry, French diplomat and ambassador, Postal Secretary of the Imperial Chinese Post Office

Portugal, Order of Villa Vicosa, gold and enamels; Italy, Kingdom, Order of the Crown, gold and enamels; Sweden, Order of Vasa, gold and enamels; Japan, Order of the Rising Sun, gold and enamels; Germany, Prussia, Order of the Red Eagle, silver-gilt and enamels; Russia, Order of St Stanislas, gold and enamels; China, Republic, Order of the Golden Grain, gold and enamels; China, Empire, Order of the Double Dragon, silver, gilt and enamels; France, Colonial, Order of the Dragon of Annam, silver-gilt and enamels; France, Republic, Palmes Academic, silver-gilt and enamels; France, China Medal 1900-01; France, Republic, Legion of Honour, silver-gilt and enamels, all mounted continental style on a triple braided gold chain, with gold fixing pins at either end, contained in A. Bacqueville, Paris case, chip to reverse of Red Eagle, otherwise good very fine or better (12) £1200-1500

Ex Spink, November 2005, ‘Awards bestowed upon Théophile Piry, Diplomat and Ambassador’.

Théophile Piry (1851-1915) arrived in China in 1870 and spent his entire diplomatic career in Asia, being stationed in Korea 1886-88, then Macao to 1898, and afterwards in China until his death. He and his family (wife, two girls and one son) were housed in the British Embassy during the siege of the Peking legations in the summer of 1900. He was an avid early amateur photographer and, it is reported, he took many photographs during the siege of Peking of various occupants within the walls of the legation, both civilian and military.

In 1901 Théophile Piry was appointed Postal Secretary, the highest position within the Imperial Chinese Post Office, which he held until his death in 1915. His younger daughter Nalka eloped to Russia with George E. Morrison, the London Times correspondent during the siege. Jeanne Isabelle Piry married in 1913, to Arthur Dickinson Blackburn (later Sir, K.C.M.G., C.B.E.), British diplomat and Consul in China 1908-44. Many of Piry’s photographs are featured in Barbarian Lens - Western Photographs of the Emperor Qianlong’s European Palaces, by Regina Thiriez. The Piry Papers are held by Queen’s University, Belfast.

See Lot 1005 for the Peking Siege medal presented to his daughter Jeanne Isabelle Piry.