Orders of Spain, San Hermenegildo and Isabella the Catholic, Plate XXVII, 1844

This is an original antique wood engraving, colored by hand with watercolor, showing Spanish insignia. At upper left is a gold cross star over silver rays, with a white center showing a gold horseman, framed by a gold lettered band and a green laurel wreath. Below it at lower left the matching white cross with gold edges has a blue band around the horseman; it hangs from a gold crown on a white ribbon with a broad dark blue stripe, with its gold reverse below. At upper right is a gold rayed star with red-enameled arms; its center shows two columns with a scroll and a crowned globe, under a crowned blue monogram, within a lettered band and a green wreath. At lower right the matching cross hangs from a laurel wreath on a white ribbon with orange-yellow edges, with its blue reverse below showing a crowned monogram. At the center a white cross with an interlaced script monogram hangs from a crown on a blue watered ribbon.

The running head names Spain, one letter unprinted, and the plate number reads "XXVII." The items are numbered 20 to 24. The star numbered 20 is lettered "PREMIO A LA CONSTANCIA MILITAR" (reward for military constancy), the motto of the Order of San Hermenegildo; cross 21 repeats it, miscut, and its reverse bears "F.VII". The star numbered 22 reads "A LA LEALTAD ACRISOLADA" (to proven loyalty) and "POR ISABEL LA CATOLICA" (for Isabella the Catholic), with "PLUS ULTRA" (further beyond) on the scroll; cross 23 carries the loyalty legend, miscut, on its face and "POR ISABEL LA CATOLICA" on its reverse.

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.

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