1st Class (Grand Cross) Set of the Order. Sash Badge, 63 x 33 mm., gilt Silver, silver and enamels of highly elaborate manufacture, the centre, with a portrait of Milosh Obrenovic in the finest enamel-miniature, the upper “bow” above the applied “M” monogram, struck with the “KF”, “A” and Viennese silver marks, link and ribbon-rings, also struck with Austrian silver marks, with the original, pale blue silk sash with round rosette of Austrian type. Highly Convex Breast Star, 84 x68 mm., Silver with alternately diamond-cut chiselled/pierced and smooth rays, the centre, made as the badge’s obverse, also with miniature portrait and enameled details, the reverse with oval counter-medallion (this, struck with the “KF”, “A” and the Viennese silver marks), broad, vertical pin, also struck with “KF” and two “A” marks.
This order was instituted by King Milan Obrenovic in 1898 to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the return of King Milosh to the Serbian throne. It saw very few awards, because after the coup- d’état of May 1903 with the assassination of King Alexander and his wife, Queen Draga signing the end of the Obrenovic dynasty, this, and the Order of Takovo were discontinued and abolished.
An outstandingly rare and beautiful group, probably the most important in private hands, made in the workshop of the Viennese goldsmith Karl Fleischhacker, who also created the definitive design of this order, with a famous provenance: The Collection of World Orders and Decorations of the American Numismatic Society. I RR!