Spain, Kingdom. A Royal Cavalry Armory Of Valencia, Breast Star, by B.Castells, c.1880

"Real Maestranza de Caballería de Valencia". Of absolute top quality and period manufacture, featuring a multifaceted twelve pointed star, with an exquisitely crafted centrepiece in gold and enamels, reverse with a central pin assembly, two stays and a cartouche for B.Castells, measuring 79 mm (h) x 73 mm (w), missing four ray points, with pleasing toning to silver, very fine. 

Footnote: The Real Maestranza de Caballería de Valencia (Royal Cavalry Armory of Valencia) is a Spanish "maestranza de caballería" created in 1697. The first set of bylaws were approved seven years later, and currently the organization is governed by the latest draft of 1999. It has, as its patron saint, the Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception. Since the Real Cédula of 1760, it has enjoyed the same privileges as its sisters in Granada and Sevilla. Maestranzas de caballería (literally translated as cavalry armories) are noble militias created in the early modern era by the Spanish Crown, with the aim of giving the nobility practice in horsemanship and the use of weapons. In the sixteenth century, the caballería or cavalry, was the typical military branch for nobles to follow, but the aforementioned skills had become less common as the Spanish aristocracy converted into a class of courtiers. These noble institutions created a dedicated cavalry corps that was directly funded by its members. The participating nobles, or maestrantes, organized themselves under the advocacy of a holy patron and took the internal form of a confraternity.