Great Britain, Orders of the Thistle and Saint Patrick, Plate XXXIII, 1844

This is an original antique wood engraving, colored by hand with watercolor, showing the insignia of two British orders. At upper left is a silver rayed star with a green shamrock bearing three gold crowns on a red saltire, within a blue lettered ring. At middle right the badge of the same order, an oval with the crowned shamrock on a red saltire inside a lettered gold band and a wreath of shamrocks, hangs on a large sky blue ribbon. At upper right is a silver rayed star overlaid with a white saltire edged in gold, with a purple thistle on gold in a green lettered ring. At middle left the oval badge shows Saint Andrew in a purple robe holding his white saltire cross against gold rays, inside a green lettered band, on a large green ribbon. At the foot is a section of a gold collar of thistles and sprigs of leaves, with a pendant of Saint Andrew and his cross on a rayed gold ground.

The running head reads "GRANDE BRETAGNE." (Great Britain) and the plate number "XXXIII." The items are numbered 5 to 9. The star 5 and the badge 9 read "QUIS SEPARABIT" (who shall separate us?) with the date "MDCCLXXXIII" (1783), the motto of the Order of Saint Patrick. The star 8 and the badge 6 read "NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT" (no one provokes me with impunity), the motto of the Order of the Thistle. The collar 7 is not lettered.

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 green and blue ribbons of Scotland and Ireland side by side make this a natural plate for a Scottish or Irish interior.

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