Description
Crimea Medal, bar Traktir, unnamed as issued, a rarely seen French clasp.
The ribbon is fitted with a French production “Traktir” clasp, rather than producing the clasps in the British fashion to be pinned through the suspension post, they typically opted as seen on many of their medals for a slip on “slider” style with prongs on the back to fix it to the ribbon.
For the British, as far as they were concerned the Crimean War Medal could be awarded with the 4 names of the 4 Major Battles, Alma, Inkermann, Balaklava and Sebastopol as well as the Royal Navy earned clasp of “Azoff”
Meanwhile for the French Military who fought alongside the British, they would receive the same British Medal, but adorn them with their own clasps, one of which was this clasp, only awarded by the French reading “Traktir”.
The Traktir clasp was earned for the Battle of Chernaya (meaning Black River), at “Traktir Bridge”.
This battle did not particularly feature the British Forces, who were held at the back with a small number of troops, being instead a joint honour of the French Empire, Kingdom of Sardinian and Ottoman Empire, for their victory over the Russian Empire on 16th August 1855, the final attempt by the Russians to break the Siege of Sebastopol.
