6 Breast Star for the Grand Cross of the Grand Ducal - Hessian Order of Merit (Ludewigs Order) from the time of the Napoleonic Wars.

Miniature of the Cross of the Order 1st Model (1769 - 1785) with cipher "FL" of Landgrave Friedrich II of Hesse Kassel.

Gold and enamel, without ribbon. The princely hat is movably worked and in a particularly sculptural design. The lions are finely chiselled between the cross-angles.

Although only a miniature, this piece is of outstanding importance to the history of the order, as less than a handful of examples of the first model have survived worldwide.

This specimen is illustrated and described in Klingbeil / Thies, Orden 1700 - 2000, Vol. I, Kirchheim / Teck 2008, p. 286 f, No. 954.

Order miniature of great rarity.

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