POST WW1 FRENCH SYRIA CAMPAIGN MEDAL LEVANT & 1925-26 CLASPS ARMY MILITARY

Offered is an original French campaign medal for the Levant (Syria).

30mm wide circular bronze medal on laterally-pierced loop and suspension bar with two olive palms supporting a crescent; the face with a female head facing left, wearing a helmet with oak wreath and representing the French Republic, inscribed ‘REPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE’, signed ‘GEORGES LEMAIRE’ (sculptor and engraver, 1853-1914); the reverse with oak and laurel leaves, a cannon, a naval anchor and standards inscribed ‘HONNEUR ET PATRIE SYRIE CICILIE’ above an oriental fort, inscribed ‘LEVANT’; assay marked BRONZE to rim; age-toned; on original ribbon with ornate Orientalist bronze ‘LEVANT’ & ‘LEVANT 1925-26’ bars.

The medal was created on 18 July 1922 and awarded to French soldiers and sailors who served between 11 November 1918 and 20 October 1921 in the creation and pacification of the Syrian and Lebanese states that were carved out from the Turkish Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I. There were three subsequent versions of the medal which continued to be awarded until 1943. A good example of an increasingly hard-to-find medal.