France (Second Empire). A Legion D'Honneur, V Class Knight (1852-1870), Attributed to Paul-Adolphe Dieudonné Thiébault

(Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur, Chevalier). Instituted in 1802. In silver with white, blue and green enamels, Gold centrepieces, hallmarked with a boar's head (denoting French manufacture of 900 silver, post 1838) on the tip of the ribbon on the obverse, measuring 32.5 mm (w) x 50.2 mm (h), chipping evident in the blue enamels on the reverse centrepiece, chipping and crazing in the white enamels on the arms at 5 and 7 o'clock on the obverse, along with loss in the white enamels on the reverse on the same arms, frayed original ribbon, fair. Accompanied by a Miniature Portrait of Paul-Adolphe Dieudonné Thiébault (in oil on canvas, the visual area of the frame measuring 54 mm (w) x 85 mm (h), under glass, within a period 95.5 mm (w) x 126.7 mm (h) wooden frame, with a gold-coloured finish on the obverse, a paper covered card backer secured in place via three nails, along with a loop at the top for wall placement on the reverse).

Footnote: The Legion of Honour (AKA National Order of the Legion of Honour) is the highest French order of merit for military and civil merits, established in 1802 by Napoléon Bonaparte. The order's motto is "Honneur et Patrie" ("Honour and Fatherland") and its seat is the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur next to the Musée d'Orsay, on the left bank of the River Seine in Paris. The order is divided into five degrees of increasing distinction: Chevalier (Knight), Officier (Officer), Commandeur (Commander), Grand Officier (Grand Officer) and Grand-Croix (Grand Cross). Paul-Adolphe Dieudonné Thiébault (1797-1875) was the son of General Paul Charles François Adrien Henri Dieudonné Thiébault (1769-1846) and Elizabeth "Betzy" Walker (1767-1824). Adolphe had followed his father into the French military and eventually became an instructor at various academies. In addition to being a military tutor, he was also an antiquities collector. Adolphe's own personal life would prove to be quite the opposite of his parents' one. He married Harriet Thayer (1791-1860), the daughter of an English country gentleman, in 1822 and the union appears to have been a happy one lasting for thirty-eight years and producing one child, Henrietta Malvina (born 1823). His father, General Paul Charles François Adrien Henri Dieudonné Thiébault (born December 14, 1769 in Berlin, died October 14, 1846 in Paris) was an Army officer who had fought in Napoleon I's Army. Paul had joined a detachment of the French national guard at the outbreak of the Revolution. He later joined the regular army and rose swiftly through the ranks, appointed Brigadier General in 1801 and Major General in 1808. Paul was the leading French military figure on the Iberian Peninsula from 1807 to 1811 and was placed in charge of the Portuguese campaign of 1807-1808. He was ennobled in 1811 and named Baron de l'Empire, a title transferable to male descendants. Paul's professional success balanced a tumultuous personal life. In 1793, he and his superior officer, Étienne de Jouy, had met two British sisters who were residing with their mother and stepfather in the French city of Lille. Both couples married within six months of their initial meetings. De Jouy wed Isabella Walker (1763-1830) while Paul married Elizabeth "Betsy" Walker (1767-1824). Paul and Betsy's relationship was under constant strain due to Paul's absences for military obligations, along with her British roots. Betzy's continual pregnancies during ten years of marriage also contributed to the strain, the couple having three children: the aforementioned Adolphe (1797-1875), Melanie Laure and Alfred (born 1803), while two others had died shortly after birth. Paul separated from Betsy in December 1802 while she was in the later stages of pregnancy with their last child. Paul-Adolphe Dieudonné Thiébault's lineage can be traced back one more generation: his maternal grandmother (Elizabeth "Betsy" Walker's mother) was the Scottish novelist Lady Mary Hamilton (May 8, 1736 - February 29, 1821), while his paternal grandfather (General Paul Charles François Adrien Henri Dieudonné Thiébault's father) was Dieudonné Thiébault (December 26, 1733 - December 5, 1807), who had been an instructor at Frederick the Great's (King Frederick II of Prussia) Military School in Berlin and was a friend of the King. He later became France's Keeper of the Archives and Sous-Chef of the Bureau de la Librarie. Adolphe's experience as an antiquities collector during the nineteenth century enabled him to gather various manuscripts and papers documenting the family's history, which are currently housed at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.