This Friday representatives from Sweden, Ukraine and Estonia gathered fro the ceremony of the presentation of the Ukrainian museum Hetman’s Capital with the exact replica of the eighteenth-century badge of the Swedish Order of the Sword.
It had been more than two years since the Tallinn Museum of Orders of Knighthood was contacted by the Ukrainian museum Hetman’s Capital in the city Baturin for assistance in finding information about an award presented to Grigory Orlik, son of a famous Ukrainian hetman in exile, close ally and supporter of Ivan Mazepa, who famously went against Peter the Great during the battle near Poltava and allied himself with Charles XII of Sweden. For a very long time no research had been done into the personal history of the people involved, but recent studies revealed a treasure trove of information.
Most interesting for the Tallinn Museum with its speciality in orders of knighthood, was that Grigory was awarded the Order of the Sword of Sweden. Since the insignia of the Swedish Royal Order of the Sword of the required period is extremely rare and there was no possibility of obtaining an original, a unique solution was proposed and executed with the full support of the Swedish Chancery of Orders by the official makers of Swedish insignia Atelier Borgila AB.
For the first time in the history of Sweden, a copy of a rare badge was officially produced for a museum. This job was done by the skillful jewelers brothers Ingemansson following the exact process of the 18th century and took more than half a year to perfect. Many visitors came to see both the rare original badge of the Order on loan from HM the King of Sweden and the exact reproduction at the Tallinn Museum of Orders of Knighthood last week. Now the badge will be travelling to Ukraine where it will become part of the permanent exhibition on Grégoire Orlyk.