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Auction: 24003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 264

A remarkable jewel-set pre-Civil War Knight's Badge of the Order of the Bath

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, Knight's Badge, circa 1625-49, in the form of three conjoined three-dimension crowns, the obverse of these overall enhanced with a plethora of old-cut diamonds, with Scottish thistle and English rose between them, all in fine-work gold and enamel, with appendant natural pearl, this pierced with gold rod and dual rings, 52mm overall including loop, top crown 19mm x 13mm x 10mm, remaining crowns 12mm x 10mm x 8mm, pearl 10mm high, good very fine and a remarkably rare example, housed in a nineteenth century fitted case by A. E. Poston & Co. Ltd, Dowgate Hill, London

Such an early survivor of this Insignia presents what is likely a unique opportunity at Public Auction. After the Coronation of King Charles I in 1625, the Earl Marshal commanded that the Knights of the Bath should wear an enamelled gold badge with three Crowns in the centre formed from branches and leaves (The Order of the Bath, Peter Galloway refers). Risk also commented '...there are some grounds for thinking that such a device already existed in the reign of James I' (The History of the Order of the Bath, James C. Risk refers).

The Jacobean portraitist Robert Peake, who held the prestigious position of ‘Serjeant-Painter’ to King James I made several depictions of small Badges of the Orders of Chivalry. Perhaps the best example is a portrait - described as circle of Peake - which shows Sir Charles Stanhope wearing a small Bath Knight's Badge around his neck (Christie's, November 2006).

It is also known that some sixty-six neck Badges were supplied by Robert Vyner in 1661 for the Coronation of Charles II. Perhaps it is the case that this Badge resurfaced following the Civil War, Commonwealth and Restoration, with its true uses and significance being lost to time with the re-organisation of the Order. It is also perhaps the case that Badges from the previous centuries found their way onto the jewellery market, given that the fitted case is younger than the Badge itself by several hundred years.

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Estimate
£20,000 to £30,000

Starting price
£18000