United Kingdom. A Household Cavalry Badge, c.1880

Multi-piece construction, in bronze gilt with red and blue enamels, unmarked, illustrating the monogram of Queen Victoria on the centrepiece, surrounded by a garter bearing the inscription "HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE" (a maxim in the Anglo-Norman language, a dialect of Old Norman French spoken by the medieval ruling class in England, meaning "shamed be whoever thinks ill of it", usually translated as "shame on anyone who thinks evil of it"; being the motto of the British chivalric Order of the Garter, the highest of all British knighthoods), surmounted by the Victorian crown, measuring 47.5 mm (w) x 73 mm (h), both lugs intact, brass support plate secured in place via a vertical pin connected to two smaller lugs on the badge, intact enamels, very light contact, near extremely fine.