Nassau Medals, Waterloo Medal and Service Crosses, Plate XLIX, 1844

This is an original antique wood engraving, colored by hand, showing medals, crosses and ribbons of the Duchy of Nassau. At the top, item 1 is a gold portrait medal and item 2 a silver medal with an inscription in a wreath over crossed weapons, both on buff ribbons with dark blue stripes. In the middle, item 3 shows both faces of a medal on a blue ribbon edged in orange: a silver side with a robed female figure raising a wreath over a warrior and a gold side with a portrait head. Items 6 and 7 are blue ribbon samples edged in yellow, item 7 with an extra yellow stripe inside each edge. At the bottom, item 4 shows both faces of a silver cross on a pale blue ribbon, and item 5 a gold cross on the same ribbon, each with a Gothic letter W at its center and words on its arms.

The running head reads "NASSAU" and the plate number "XLIX". Item 1 is lettered "FRIEDERICH I HERZOG ZU NASSAU" (Friedrich I, Duke of Nassau) and item 2 "DER TAPEERKEIT FE", spelled as engraved (to bravery). The silver face of item 3 reads "DEN NASSAUISCHEN STREITERN BEI WATERLOO DEN 18 JUNI 1815" (to the Nassau fighters at Waterloo, 18 June 1815) and the gold face "FRIEDERICH AUGUST HERZOG ZU NASSAU". The arms of the crosses read "XXV IAHRE TREUE DIENST" and "XXII IAHRE TREUE DIENST" (twenty-five and twenty-two years of loyal service), and the reverse of item 4 is dated "25 FEBRUAR 1834".

The plate comes from Ordres de Chevalerie et Marques d'Honneur, published by Auguste Wahlen at Brussels, 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 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.

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