Orders of Bavaria, Saint Hubert Insignia, Plate IX, Wood Engraving, 1844

An original antique wood engraving, colored by hand with watercolor, showing insignia of Bavaria. At the upper left is a silver rayed star (1) with a white cross edged in gold, its arms scattered with small flame marks, its red center lettered in Gothic black letter. At the upper right is a blue Maltese cross star (5) with a red cross on a white center. In the middle are a gold rayed cross (2) under a crown on a red ribbon edged in green, its gold center showing a small scene with a kneeling figure, within Gothic lettering; a small shield shaped badge (3) with a gold orb and cross on red inside a lettered scroll; a gold disc (7) with a robed figure under a halo of stars above a crescent; and a red and white cross (6) on a pale blue ribbon with black and white stripes, hung from a gold lion mask, its gold center showing a horseman spearing a dragon. Across the foot is a gold collar of panels showing the kneeling hunter, a dog and the stag with a cross between its antlers, alternating with red and green Gothic monograms.

The plate is headed "BAVIÈRE." (Bavaria) at the upper left and numbered "IX." at the upper right, with items numbered 1 to 7. The stag with a cross between its antlers and the kneeling hunter on the collar are the device of the Bavarian Order of Saint Hubert. The badge (3) is lettered in script "In Memoriam Recuperatę Dignitatis Auitae." (In memory of the recovered ancestral dignity), with the date 1708.

The plate comes from Ordres de Chevalerie et Marques d'Honneur, published in Brussels in 1844 by the Librairie Historique-Artistique, rue de Schaerbeek, 12, with the title page reading "publié par Auguste Wahlen"; the half title is 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.

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