WW2 ERA IMPERIAL ORDER OF THE STAR OF ETHIOPIA OFFICER GRADE MEDAL AWARD

Offered is an original Ethiopian Order of the Star of Ethiopia, Officer grade award.

78mm high, 2 piece medal, gilt metal five-pointed star, the lower two arms joined, on a suspension of a Europeanised Ethiopian coronet; the face with a traditional Ethiopian filigree shield pattern with raised central boss; the reverse plain with maker’s mark ‘MADE IN ETHIOPIE B.A. SEVADJIAN’; on original ribbon with officer’s rosette, with screwback attachment disc. Overall exceptionally fine condition.

The Order of the Star of Ethiopia was founded by Emperor Menelik II in 1884-85 when he was Negus (King) of Shoa and prior to his becoming Emperor of Ethiopia in 1889, and is said to be based on an older award. It was awarded in five grades of which the present example is ‘Officer’. Prior to the overthrow of the Ethiopian monarchy in 1974, the Order was made by B. A. Sevadjian of Addis Ababa, apart from the period of Italian occupation from 1936 to 1941 when it was made by Mappin and Webb in London.