Grand Cross Breast Star of French manufacture, 75 mm., with excellently chiseled and pierced silver rays, red enameled centre medallion bearing silver Patriarch’s Cross rising from green enameled mount (depicted as a single, centrally domed mount as on the Austrian-made stars awarded to Napoleon III and his aide, Joseph Napoleon Ney, III Duke of the Moscova), superimposed by a crown, this, sided by the chiseled, golden letters “M T” indicating the the founder, Empress Maria Theresia, the whole within outer circlet enriched with a pattern of golden, green enameled oak leaves, bordered by a chiseled, beaded ring and an outer border of stylized acanthus leaves, the reverse with vertical pin and the maker’s escutcheon of Halley, Paris.
A beautiful star, from ca. 1865, directly inspired by the pieces of Austrian manufacture, but denoting the French taste and workmanship, excellent condition. I RR!