The Orders and Medals Society of America There may well be other surviving representations _. of royal "medals" from the monuments of other and later reigns. However, none have been located so far. Certainly, no actual specimens have been recovered by archaeol- ogists to date.

From the evidence avail- able, we may conclude that the medals under consid- eration were the exclusive prerogative of the reigning . Not even the highest Assyrian civil or military officials, much less commoners, are ever shown wearing them. These medals were part of the royal , and they therefore served, in a sense, as badges of rank. The evidence further sug- gests that the Kings of Assyria, who were earthly representatives of the gods, invariably wore their royal "medals" during solemn religious ceremonies at which they officiated in person. There is, however, no reason to suppose that the rulers did not don Stele of King Shamshi-Adad V these medals during their (r. 823-811 BCE), from Nimrud. frequent military cam- Now in the British Museum, paigns as well. Room 26, No. WAl18892.

40 The Medal Collector Volume 47, Number 5 In short, the royal "medals" of the Kings of the New Assyrian Empire were sacred emblems, intended "to ensure the protection of the divine powers that they represented.7 When worn on the royal person, such symbols served as potent amulets, capable of shielding the King from harm in both war and peace. Consequently, these decorations may be defined as "holy medals," whose function was not dissimilar to that of those "holy medals" with which His Most Christian Majesty, King Louis XI (r. 1461-1483 AD.) of France, used to adorn his hat so profusely, more than twenty-three centuries later.

Although the Assyrian "holy medals" are interesting in their own right, and although their forms and motifs have since reappeared in medal design, no direct line of descent can be traced from them to the religious medals of mediaeval and modern times. When the last capital of Assyria, Nineveh (modern Kuyunjik, across the Tigris River from Mosul), fell to the Medes and Chaldeans in 612 BCE., the Assyrians and their civilization faded rapidly from memory, surviving only in the pages of the Old Testament, and in some references in classical literature. Indeed, the ancient Kingdom of Assyria remained almost completely forgotten until the great archaeological discoveries made by Rich, Botta, Layard, and Rassam, in the first half of the Nineteenth Century AD.

THE COLLAR OF THE IMPERIAL ORDER OF THE ROSE OF BRAZIL

E. J. Fischer, OMSA #922

Several in-depth research studies (especially Dragomir Acovic’s work) on the Imperial Brazilian Order of the Rose make recital of its history, structure, and designs here superfluous. Founded 17 October 1829 by Brazilian Emperor Dom Pedro I, the six class Order of the Rose commemorated his 2 August marriage to Amelia of Leuchtenburg. This honor ranked as junior in the Imperial Brazilian Orders schema. It recognized general merit to the Empe- ror and State. Abolished in 1891 after the Brazilian Revolution, the republic

7 Wallis Budge, E. A., British Museum: A Guide to the Babylonian andAssyrian Antiquities, Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1900, p. 19.

41 The Orders and Medals Society of America eventually reused the basic insignia design in its Order of Merit, establish- ed in 1946.

The insignia of the Imperial Order of the Rose differs by grade from the ge- neral Portuguese or Brazilian standard, but except for the collar, it is at least fairly well known. The illustration de- picts Pedro I wear- ing the illusive col- lar of this Order. It is a detail from a painting displayed in Peteropolis, the former Imperial Brazilian summer capital.

The pectoral link appears to be a golden disk or octagon overlaid with the intertwined floriated initials " P" and "A." (The monogram of Pedro and Amelia.) On either side of this appear links composed of a single red enanaeled rose in bloom surrounded by four green enameled rose leaves. Links designed as gold armorial shields charged with the "P" and "A" alternate with rose links to form the collar. The collar units connect via small loops. A badge which appears to be the same as a regular Grand Badge hangs from the pectoral link.

The badge itself (next page) is a white enameled six-pointed star edged in gold. The center medallion has a blue enameled motto ring with the inscription AMOR E FEDELIDADE (Love and Fidelity), and a gold center with the intert~vined, floriated initials "P" and "A." There are three roses enameled in natural colors between each set of points. The whole is suspended from a gold Imperial Brazilian .

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