Hardcover, black cloth cover, with dust jacket, the front cover embossed with a large Maltese Cross in gold-coloured ink, entitled "The Book of Orders & Decorations", the text by Václav Měřička, photographs by Jundřich Marco, English edition translated by Ruth Shepherd and Eliška Rihová, B.A., edited by Alec A. Purves, drawings and graphic design by Aleš Krejča, designed and produced by Artia of Prague for The Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited (London, New York, Sydney, Toronto), printed in Czechoslovakia by Polygrafia in 1975, ISBN 0 600 63731 2. This book is best described as a general reference guide for collectors of the various orders and decorations of the world, through the use of descriptive text and multiple photographs, featuring many of the prominent and well-known awards, even touching on some of the lesser known awards. It begins with an Editor's Preface, followed by the Introduction and is divided into seventeen sections under the headings: Awards in the Ancient World; Orders and General Awards; The Development of Orders and Awards; The Development of General Awards; The Structure of Badges; Habits of Orders, the Wearing of Awards and Miniatures; The Bestowing of Awards and Decrees; Manufacture of Insignia; Collecting Orders and Decorations; Originals, Duplicates, Copies and Counterfeits; The Preservation and Restoration of Decorations; The Cataloguing of Decorations and Arrangement of Collections; The Acquisition of Specimens, World Collections and Associations of Collectors; Collectors' Vade Mecum; General Standard Terminology for Orders and Decorations (dealing with stars, crosses and medallions, detailing types of rays, crosses, shields, crowns and ribbons); Survey of Mottoes of Orders, etc.; List of Orders According to Country or Place of Origin. It concludes with a Bibliography, a List of Colour Plates and a List of Illustrations in the Text. The book contains 248 pages, the text, line drawings and many of the photographs in black ink, on an off-white paper stock, plus 32 colour plates inserted at various intervals throughout the book and printed on a coated white paper stock, measuring 215 mm (w) x 285 mm (h) x 27 mm (d). It exhibits light edge wear on the dust jacket, along with finger marks on the edges of the pages, however, the pages and cover of the book remain pristine. Near extremely fine.
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