Orders of Turkey, Jeweled Badges and Portrait Medallion, Plate LXXXIV, 1844

This is an original antique wood engraving, colored by hand with watercolor, showing three Ottoman decorations. At the top left (1) is a badge hung by a jeweled bar from a red watered ribbon edged in green: a jeweled star rosette sits above a round gold center with a calligraphic monogram inside a zigzag sunburst border, framed by a ring of stones, gold rays above and a jeweled spray of leaves tied below. At the top right (2) is a smaller oval badge on a matching red ribbon edged in green, its gold monogram center set in a jeweled frame under a jeweled bow. Below (3) is a large portrait medallion: a bearded man with a mustache, in a tall red fez with a blue tassel and a blue coat, with a gold cord and a small jeweled badge at the chest, shown head and shoulders against a pale blue ground inside a frame of large cut stones, with jeweled ribbon loops and a jeweled bow at the top from which hang gold cords.

The running head reads "TURQUIE." (Turkey) and the plate number "LXXXIV.", and the three pieces are numbered 1, 2 and 3 below them. There is no other lettering on the plate: the monograms on the two badges are drawn in an Arabic-script calligraphic style and the portrait medallion carries no name, so the sitter is not identified on the print.

The plate comes from Ordres de Chevalerie et Marques d'Honneur (Orders of Chivalry and Marks of Honor), published by Auguste Wahlen and issued in Brussels in 1844 by the Librairie Historique-Artistique, rue de Schaerbeek, 12. 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 orders of Prussia, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Hanover, Greece, the Roman States, Saxe-Coburg and Brazil.

The portrait gives this plate more immediate appeal than most insignia plates, and it suits a small frame on its own.

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