Grand Duchy of Hesse, Order of Louis Insignia, Plate XLIII, Wood Engraving, 1844

This original antique wood engraving, colored by hand, shows insignia of the Grand Duchy of Hesse. At upper left (1) is a breast star of pale blue rays with a lettered dark center inside a green wreath. At upper right (3) is a star with a red and black cross edged in gold laid over rays, with the same center. In the middle (5) is a gold cross with a crowned L cipher, on a red ribbon with white stripes, shown with its round reverse. Lower left (2) is a crowned cross with red arms and dark centers edged in gold, its red center holding a white cipher in a wreath within a white lettered ring, on a black ribbon with red stripes; below it is a small round piece with the lettered center of the stars. Lower right (4) is the same cross with a gold L in a wreath at its center.

The running head at upper left reads "HESSE GRAND-DUCALE." (Grand Ducal Hesse) and the plate number at upper right "XLIII."; the items are numbered 1 to 5. The star centers read "GOTT EHRE VATERLAND", German for "God, honor, fatherland", the motto of the Order of Louis, whose L appears on crosses 4 and 5. The white rings of crosses 2 and 4 read "FUR VERDIENSTE" (for merit), and the reverse of cross 5 has "XXV" within "IAHRE TREUER DIENSTE" (years of faithful service).

The plate comes from Ordres de Chevalerie et Marques d'Honneur, published by Auguste Wahlen in Brussels by the Librairie Historique-Artistique, rue de Schaerbeek, 12, in 1844; the half title reads Histoire, costumes, décorations de tous les ordres de chevalerie, et marques d'honneur. Auguste Wahlen was the pen name of the Belgian writer Jean-François-Nicolas Loumyer (1801 to 1875), and the title page lists his own knighthoods in the orders of Prussia, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Hanover, Greece, the Roman States, Saxe-Coburg and Brazil. The illustrations are relief prints, wood engravings colored by hand with watercolor.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.