Holy Land and Tunis, Jerusalem Cross and Tunisian Badge, Plate LXXXII, 1844

This is an original antique wood engraving, colored by hand, showing insignia of the Holy Land and of Tunis. At the top is a silver star of pointed rays with a pale blue center ringed by a gold laurel wreath, bearing a red Jerusalem cross, a cross potent with four small crosses in its angles. Below, at left, the same Jerusalem cross in red with gold edges hangs under a gold royal crown from a black watered ribbon: the Holy Land plate shows the cross of the Holy Sepulchre. At right is the Tunisian piece, on a green watered ribbon with pink edge stripes: a white jeweled ornament of four loops above an oval badge whose gold center holds Arabic lettering set with stones and a crescent, within a scalloped border of white stones.

The running head reads "TERRE SAINTE. TUNIS." (Holy Land, Tunis), with a dash between the two names, and the plate number "LXXXII." The items are numbered 1 to 3. Apart from the Arabic lettering on badge 3, there is no inscription on the plate.

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; its 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 plates are relief prints, wood engravings colored by hand with watercolor.

The insignia are set out with generous space on a cream ground, and the plate works well framed on its own or hung with other plates from the same book.

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