saschaw

A great overview on the Baden awards, the most beautiful and interesting of all, with some not too common pieces! You do know two don't come with the proper ribbons, I assume? You can check ehrenzeichen-orden.de for the proper ribbons: https://www.ehrenzeichen-orden.de/deutsche-staaten/medaille-fur-arbeiter-und-dienstboten-1895.html https://www.ehrenzeichen-orden.de/deutsche-staaten/felddienst-auszeichnung-1839.html I'm going to send you an email on this matter...

I'm pushing this up, for there isn't a pinned thread with the 1870 EK roll... but that would require someone to find it online... and I'm not aware it is to be found anywhere! The German DGO site has a hand-typed, well-readable pdf file list of the EK1 winners, made by a most diligent DGO member (who is a GMIC user as well: "NavalMark"). Probably exciting news for all those who hadn't found it before... https://www.deutsche-gesellschaft-fuer-ordenskunde.de/DGOWP/links/verleihungslisten/preussen/

I honestly don't know, maybe one of the EK gurus has an idea. I could well imagine, however, these did come up still in the "Great War" era, and not necessarily afterwards. But, as said, I don't know for sure. My focus always was on award types, not on these fancy private purchase pieces.

I agree with the idea this is a Fürstlich Reußisches Ehrenkreuz, III. Klasse mit Schwertern that was, for whatever silly reason, worn on the neck. Here's some pictures of a cased example I sold maybe three years ago to compare with. The photo quality is not really good, but I'm very close to 100% positive it fits...

A nice and not too usual cross, and Komtur already explained why. Only one in (full) gold could be more desirable... I have seen this quite some times before, especially with RAO and KO crosses in gold. Sounds odd, but I don't think this is a damage caused by wear, but rather a contemporary production flaw. When such a cross is assembled, from some thin gold sheet frames, it doesn't take much to get some asymmetry involved... I wouldn't be too sure about that! For reasons I do not know, golden RAOs centers often have a rather strong gold patina. It might be their purity which might be lower than the cross body's, or they "suffered" from the way they were fixed to the cross... I really don't know why - but I wouldn't assume this centers to be gilt replacements.

Thanks, Komtur, for sharing this great group to one of the most important men of his days with us! What I love most about it, besides the Baden connection, of course, is the fitting photograph!

Given such an award should be placed very differently - shouldn't it be? - I'm much more convinced of the Italian theory.

Wow, so cool! That's one I'd consider to keep, although I'm neither collecting Hessen nor Hohenzollern...

Then nothing is 100%, it seems. "We." 1st class crosses are considered to be early war award types, and there were only five makers to supply the GOK with 1st class crosses until 1917: Joh. Wagner & Sohn, Sy & Wagner, J. Godet & Sohn, Gebr. Friedländer and J. H. Werner - all from Berlin. In my eyes, everything fits perfectly with this attribution... Alex, I think ixhs was referring to maker marks in the eyelet only, not to additional workers' marks and such... those are indeed known for some few more makers.

The problem with the attribution of unmarked 1914 crosses is many different makers used generic cores that were made by one of them or even a third party supplier. Few makers of EKs had their own, exclusive cores. With an additional swapping of frames by some makers (or rather "makers"?), it's sometimes just impossible to keep unmarked crosses apart. Enjoy this cross for what it is: a nice and unusual, authentic 1st class - but probably not attributable to any certain firm.

I'm pretty excited... just one week left! I'll be glad to meet some of you Gentlemen, although...

The reason we all are part of this amazing community!

Well, I'm 99,5 % convinced this is the ribbon of the German China-Denkmünze! Any other suggestions, Gentlemen?

I thought it might be a good idea to push this lovely, interesting thread up again - the first one I posted in, after I became a member of this amazing community more than thirteen years ago, by the way! Despite his son claimed it was the big one and, to be fair, it is big, Bernhard Beck received "only" the medium medal. I was able to obtain it some years ago, among some of his other awards, but as I cannot keep everything I like, I consigned it to Bene Merenti auction, where it will be sold Friday next week. Just to let you know, in case someone is interested and can, other than I, afford it...

Here's my example that will probably be part of my site's next update. The Honour Cross 2nd class is the second most "common" class of this order, with nine recipients known. In total, the list of known recipients names 90 persons - for all 27 classes and grades(!) of this order combined. See here for the list published by Dr. Lars Adler in October 2018.