Awards from Ethiopia Made by Bedros Sevadjian

We have hundreds of commemorative medals, awards and badges from various places in our collection. In this video, Collections Curator Gary Lind-Sinanian highlights two awards that were made by Bedros Sevadjian. His father, Avedis Sevadjian, was a successful tanner and industrialist during the early 1900s in Ethiopia. Bedros decided that the family business was not for him and apprenticed himself to Nigoghos Djidedjian, a jeweler at the Court of Haile Selassie I and a master of filigree work. Bedros got a standing contract from the Ethiopian government for manufacturing the buttons, symbols, crowns and stars for use on military uniforms as well as small denomination coins.