Silver Maltese cross with stippled arms and with fan and laterally-pierced ball suspension; the face with an eight-pointed silver-gilt star of graduated rays imposed centrally and bearing a white enamel medallion with the rose of Lippe in red enamel, silver-gilt and silver within a blue enamel ring inscribed in gilt letters ‘FÜR TREUE UND VERDIENST’ (for Loyalty and Merit), a gilt rose at the base; the reverse with an eight-pointed silver-gilt star of graduated rays imposed centrally and bearing a deep blue enamel medallion with the gilt crowned cipher of Prince Adolph Georg of Schaumburg-Lippe; slight loss of red enamel from the rose of the face and of blue enamel from the lower right of the medallion of the reverse; on probably original ribbon. The Order was established in 1869 as the Lippe House Order and was common to both Lippe-Detmold and Schaumburg-Lippe. On 18 September 1890, Prince Adolph Georg of Schaumburg Lippe created a separate House Order for Schaumburg-Lippe alone with four classes. It was awarded until the end of 1918 when the Order was suppressed. Schaumburg-Lippe was the smallest state of the German Empire by population and its orders are rarely found.
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