Hanover, King's German Legion Medal, Plate XL, Wood Engraving, 1844

This original antique wood engraving, colored by hand, shows insignia of Hanover. At the top (11) a badge hangs from a gold crown on a broad violet ribbon: a blue-enameled cross edged in gold with ball tips and gold lions in the angles, its white center showing Saint George on a white horse slaying a green dragon within a red ring; below it is a round reverse with an interlaced cipher, left uncolored. At left (10) is a breast star of silver and pale blue rays with a beaded ring around the same Saint George center. At right (12) is a bronze medal with a cross, crown and cipher, on a white ribbon edged in yellow, watered in pale blue. At the foot (13) a bronze medal is shown from both sides on the same ribbon: lettering within a laurel wreath, and a cross with a crowned cipher.

The running head at upper left reads "HANOVRE." (Hanover) and the plate number at upper right "XL."; the items are numbered 10 to 13. The red ring of star 10 reads "NUNQUAM RETRORSUM", Latin for "never backward". Medal 12 is dated "1813". Medal 13 reads "KÖNIGLIGH-DEUTSCHE : LEGION" around "TAPFER UND TREU", German for "King's German Legion" and "brave and true".

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.

The legion medal and the Saint George star sit well together in a display of Napoleonic era insignia.

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