Early 3rd Class (Knight’s) Badge: 41x24 mm, finely chiselled, gilt Silver double eagle, the claws holding the sword and the orb, the breast and the back superimposed with deep-blue enameled, golden shields with the Imperial cipher “F” to the obverse and the date “1815” to the reverse, the whole, resting on the gilt silver “Lombardy” crown with red and green enameled “gems”, hinged, upper crown and grooved ribbon ring, original ribbon.
A beautiful and very rare piece, dating to the 1816 – 1825 period, most possibly of French manufacture, not to be mixed with the so-called “Ordre de Rémplacement”, created in 1815 as a substitute of the ceased, Napoleonic awards of the “Ordine della Corona Ferrea / Ordre de la Couronne de Fer”, extremely fine condition. I RR!