Relic Order of Leopold

[J. Csernus]

Hello Gents, I've become this badge from a friend as a gift, I identified it as a Bronze variant of the Order, it has some heavy problems, the whole back is missing and on monogram lacks a letter as well, not to speak about the crown...
My question would be, does this have any value in this poor condition?
Thanks in advance!

[Ironcrown]

Everything has a value...
The problem is how much!
I think it's quite hard to give a quotation. Some years ago I bought on Ebay a Knight grade of the Order of the Iron Crown in bronze, in relic conditions, for about 100 euro. Altough it was in better shape than your, it still missed the crown and the Kriegsdekoration.

So what you can do with it:
- keep it as is, a relic
- try to restore replacing the missing parts
- use it to restore another cross that miss the frontal circle.

In my case I choose to restore it, replacing the crown. But your cross looks in much more critical conditions even if it's much rarer than an Iron Crown order of the same class. Also, I don't think would be easy to find a spare Leopold Order Crown and back plate.

[Roglebk]

How big is it? Size determines which class it is, my guess is a WWI period Knights Cross made by Vinc Mayer's Söhne or Rothe & Neffe. I would clean it and try to remove all the Verdigris (Green stuff). Don't think there's too much Gilt left to worry about but be careful. Cleaning and polishing the Enamel will also highlight the nice pattern under it. LO's are truly magnificent pieces, even with a missing medallion and crown.

Buy some wooden toothpicks, soak them in deionized water and start carefully picking off stuff.

Would love to help cleaning it if you like, have a Bronze Ringkragen coming in soon that needs the same treatment.

Some very nice LO's here: http://www.emedals.com/index.php?pag...mart&Itemid=11

[pzrwest]

Curious to what the brown substance is in the center of the back of the medal?

[Ironcrown]

Must be glue. I've already seen a similar substance on decorations that had lost their central part.

[Elmar Lang]

it's sealing wax, or shellack; it was (and still is) used to assemble decorations. When moderately heated it becomes very soft and allows to easily separate or apply parts. When cold, it strongly holds the parts in place.

Your Leopold order looks like being a part of a Knight's Cross, from the WW1 era, in excavated condition. I would keep it in this state, just removing active oxidations and cleaning it with moderately warm water, gently rubbing the surface with a soft toothbrush and soap, paying attention not to destroy the wax holding in place the obverse medallion.

E.L.

[Roglebk]

Sometimes it's needed to remove the old wax, esp to reattach a broken off medallion. Wax hardens over age and gets brittle. A good tool to have is a glue gun with sealing wax sticks, very easy to work with. It can be a problem to find the right color of wax though.

Here's a good guide for care and cleaning of Brass/Bronze: http://www.thehenryford.org/research/caring/brass.aspx

[J. Csernus]

Thanks for the inputs!
The measure of the cross is 20mmX20mm without the ring, does this fit the size of a knight cross?
I think I'll try to clean it a little bit, I will show you what it had become.

[Roglebk]

The measure of the cross is 20mmX20mm without the ring, does this fit the size of a knight cross?

A Knights Cross from WW1 should be 31mm across. This means you have a large miniature, they are even rarer than a full size but of course cheaper since it's a mini. It also means it's impossible to say what class it is.

If you ever want to sell please keep me in mind!

Here's a 16 and a 18mm:
http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...7&postcount=18

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...11&postcount=1