Variation of the Order of the Star

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The Order of the Union was manufactured in Paris at the House of Awards and Decoration Krety.

Was the Krétly House the only manufacturer of the Order of the Star of the Union?

Apparently yes.

Do you have a source for this statement? I have some information that suggests otherwise.

The Star of the Union badge below was said to be authentic by a numismatics expert of the National History Museum in Bucharest.


It has a thin/hollow crown, quite different from the pointy crown of the piece below in the collections of the National Military Museum.


It therefore seems that there were at least two manufacturers of the badges of this order. On the other hand the Order of the Star of the Union was in existence for a very short period of time not quite compatible with several manufacturers. What is the truth?

Armata Romana in vremea lui Alexandru Ioan Cuza (1859-1866) by Cornel I. Scafes, Horia Vl. Serbanescu, Corneliu M. Andonie and Ioan I. Scafes, Total Publishing, Bucharest 2003

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QUOTE The Order of the Union was manufactured in Paris at the House of Awards and Decoration Krety. Was the Krétly House the only manufacturer of the Order of the Star of the Union?

The following hallmark is on an Unirii order. I always thought it was from the first Joseph Resch, father of the well known Joseph Resch. The first Joseph Resch was a jeweler in the 1860's. Does anyone recognize the mark?

Here is the order.

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Armata Romana in vremea lui Alexandru Ioan Cuza (1859-1866) by Cornel I. Scafes, Horia Vl. Serbanescu, Corneliu M. Andonie and Ioan I. Scafes,  Total Publishing, Bucharest 2003

Thanks Victor for the reply. Is there any photo of the badges of the Order of the Star of the Union in the book you mentioned?

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The following hallmark is on an Unirii order.  I always thought it was from the first Joseph Resch, father of the well known Joseph Resch.  The first Joseph Resch was a jeweler in the 1860's.  Does anyone recognize the mark?

Yes, I have seen this hallmark on a badge type I of the Order of the Star of Romania which also had RESCH stamped on the bottom of the lower arm of the cross. The crown above the badge however was neither pointy nor thin/hollow.

What i wrote is from an article in the last issue of "Magazin Istoric".

Thank you for this piece of information.

I have just remembered that the badge above had a box apparently made by Rothe. I find this quite surprising since Rothe was a jeweler of the Viennese court and their products usually had exquisite quality, quite far from the quality of the badges mentioned here. On the other hand, maybe it was not the original box of the badge. Or maybe the box was not original at all.

Do you have in your collections any Romanian orders made by Rothe? What can you say about their quality (details on the badge, box etc.)?

A badge of the type under discussion is now for sale on eBay.
It looks as if the green oak wreaths and the central red medallions are painted instead of being enamelled.

Order of the Star of the Union. There are several variations coming onto the market via certain ebay dealers. These orders are made using the earliest version of the Order of the Star. The center is removed and a fake is married onto the order making it the the rare Star of the Union. I beleive that there was only one maker of this order. All others are suspect and are currently being produced by a jeweler in Bucharest using authentic early Order of the Stars which are common to get.

I have seen two Unirii orders bearing the twin dolphin hallmark which I do not believe is a Kretly mark. Does anyone know the hallmarks on a Kretly order?

The two dolphins hallmark is ....Romanian. This hallmark appears on the silver objects until (aprox.) 1920.