Can anyone help identify this

I'll keep that in mind thank you

 

To reiterate remarks I made earlier that ended up as comments instead of posts as intended, it looks more like a pendant or a fob to me, but leaving that call to the militaria community.

I asked Michael whether he knows what the metal is.

 

I believe its star base is a brass and the emblem is gold

 

We're batting a thousand today.

 

I'm having flashbacks:

https://www.antiquers.com/threads/help-me-to-identification-order.23302/#post-312429

 

Just to be clear. Everyone else is as confused as I am about this things origin right?

 

That starbust pattern is quite common in chest plates (I don't know how you call these medals in English, maybe a plaque?)

The ealge is definately Russian, you can see St George in the shield.

Any chance that it is just a pendant or something like it? By the photos it looks too small to be a medal, can you give the dimensions?

 

By style it is pre-revolutionary Russian, looks like a "sign" or a "token", not necessarily military but affiliated with the government. Might be a copy as well, let's hope it's not.

 

Right now we're thrashing out whether it is a military medal, as represented, or some item of personal adornment that has the Russian coat of arms on it. So far we are not finding anything that supports the medal idea & you have not shown or told us anything that gives a clue to age or place of making. We can't measure it & we can't test the metal; we can only work with info you provide. That's where we are at this point. Do you have some hypothesis of your own?

 

Size example by Michael Mcdonald posted Sep 3, 2019 at 7:46 PM

 

How did it come into her possession?

 

My mother gave it too me when we were looking through old jewelry boxes while talking about family I've owned it for about 8 years now. She says her mother had it in her personal belongings before she passed away but that's all we really know about it

 

I asked how she came to have it, not how you got it. Maybe the question is where did the jewelry boxes come from? Handed down in family or...

 

Yea I noticed that my bad. I edited that post to show how she got it aswell

 

OK, does that side of your family come from Russia?

If it were gold & made in Imperial Russia, it would be marked. In the unlikely case it were made in the USSR, it would be very conspicuously marked. It is not likely that the back is brass & the front gold, although back could be gold filled, something that way. I think it is very pretty & looks very well made. I encourage you to have a jeweller test whether any parts are solid gold.

If your family has a Russia connection, the story I'm building in my head is that this is jewellery made to express loyalty to the Czar but that it was not made in Russia. Something a Russian expat might wear. Fantasy, unless it fits with family history.

 

My grandfather was russian on my mother's side if I remember correctly. And unfortunately the wear on the emblem makes it so difficult to see what was once there I do see with my magnifiny glass a symbol on the center shield but its faded too much

 

The figure in the center shield is St George astride a horse as shown in post #11.

 

It is unquestionably the Russian coat of arms. That question is settled.

Since your mother had it from her mother & it was found again in a jewellery box, and there is nothing about it that connects it to the military, chances are good it is a pendant, not a medal.

Nothing on it indicates where it was made, but all indications are that it was not made in Russia.

You will have to consult a jeweller to verify what it is made of; I think you will be pleased with test results.

Could have been a gift from your Russian grandfather to his wife. If so, that gives some idea of age.

I think it's a little treasure on its own + has the family history with it, just not a military medal.

 

This is a very interesting article on Russian imperial orders: http://numismatics.org/digitallibrary/ark:/53695/nnan111388

Per this article, one thing that is true for many, if not all of the orders, is that when a badge was awarded to a non-Christian, the saint/religious text/Christian symbol that would normally appear was replaced with imperial eagle.

There may be more info to be gleaned, but it's a little too late for me to be reading/comprehending such heady text.

 

Looks like a Russian military hat badge