RIGAULT (F.-A.). — The Star of the Legion of Honor, 1804–190 - Lot 249

RIGAULT (F.-A.). — The Star of the Legion of Honor, 1804–1904. The Military Medal. Paris: J. Leroy, Publisher, 55 rue du Faubourg-Poissonnière, 1904. Large quarto, paperback, wine-colored softcover entirely decorated with a gold pattern of Crosses of the Legion of Honor and military medals, gold lettering; 47 pp., followed by an index, with 10 plates, including 2 in color. The work also includes numerous reproductions and documents within the text. A specialized bibliography on phaleristics clearly references this 1904 edition. First edition of this important commemorative monograph, published on the occasion of the centennial of the creation of the Legion of Honor. The author traces the history and transformations of the Order from the Consulate and the First Empire through to the Third Republic: its creation and organization, the composition of the Order, admission procedures, oaths, certificates, the evolution of insignia and plaques, and the history of the Military Medal, established in 1852. The illustrations are the volume’s main attraction: portraits and historical documents, reproductions of the various models of crosses, plates, and medals—including, notably, the first presentation of the Crosses of the Legion of Honor at Les Invalides on July 15, 1804, based on Debret’s work—and comparative plates illustrating the various types of the Military Medal. A detailed bibliographic description confirms the ten plates and also notes seventeen photographs and four charts within the text of the volume. This copy is preserved in its rare, decorated publisher’s binding. Unfortunately, the binding is quite worn: the spine is split with significant paper loss, the sections are partially separated, the cover is rubbed and faded, and there are small marginal losses; the interior, however, is generally clean, and the plates appear to be well preserved.