Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, G.C.B. (Civil) Knight Grand Cross, an extremely rare Investiture Badge, 35mm x 30mm, gold (22ct., 11.69 dwts.), hallmarks for London 1831, with large ring suspension, nearly extremely fine and extremely rare £2,600-£3,000

The Investiture Badge in this lot is hallmarked 1831 which, under the hallmarking conventions at the time, covers the period 29 May 1831 to 28 May 1832. The only recipients of the Civil G.C.B. in 1831-32 were the Rt. Hon. Sir Robert Adair and the far more famous Lord Palmerston, and it is intriguing to speculate that the badge offered for sale here just might have been that presented to the future Prime Minister, and the man for whom the term ‘Gunboat Diplomacy’ was coined.

Following the re-organisation of the Order of the Bath into both a Military and a Civil Division in 1815, the Military Division was expanded to the current three Classes, but the Civil Division remained as a single Class (that of Knight Grand Cross), and it was not until 1847 that the Civil Division was expanded to the same three Classes. Consequently, all Civil Division insignia from that period may reasonably be regarded as rare.