GREAT BRITAIN, THE MOST HONOURABLE ORDER OF THE BATH |

Military Division, a Garter Knight’s neck badge in gold and enamels, with Bath Crown suspension as worn by those recipients who were existing Knights of the Garter in 1815 at the time of the reform of the Order of the Bath, with clear king’s head mark for George III mark but other hallmarks indistinct, of excellent workmanship, slight marks to enamel as a result of light overall wear, good very fine

See Risk, James C., The History of The Order of the Bath and its insignia, London, 1972, pp. 124-125. Risk records that a select group of Royal recipients, together with the Duke of Wellington, were qualified to receive the special crowned versions of the new Bath badges introduced by the Prince Regent in 1815.

In fact the ‘Gartered G.C.B.s’ each received four badges of different sizes, for wear on a sash, on the collar, at the neck (as here) and in a reduced size for evening wear (see lot 14). To complicate matters further, an invoice of July 1817 sent to the Lord Chamberlain from the Crown Jewellers, Rundell, Bridge and Rundell, specified a charge for ‘Remaking Crowns to the Gold enamelled Badges prepared for Their Royal Highnesses the Dukes of Kent, Cumberland and Cambridge to drawing received, surmounted by the English Crown and afterwards altered to Imperial Crown’. Under these circumstances it is not surprising that the hallmarks on the present badge are unclear.