saschaw

That's the "Ehrenkomturkreuz mit Schwertern" of the Princely Hohenzollern House Order which he, according to Lundström/Krause, was awarded on Jan 26, 1920. The award was backdated to May 19, 1918.

Now that we seem to know everything about them, it's time to brag with something I had and sold some years ago: One of the rarest, yet plainest of all Bavarian awards: The pre-WW1 MVK 3rd class with crown. Of 15 crosses ever awarded on the peace time ribbon, all in 1913/14, this is the only known example so far! Unfortunately, the Rhineland mid-1930s tailor mounted it with a standard war ribbon, which makes zero sense. There were some more such crosses awarded on the war merit ribbon in 1914/15, but these are very rare as well, with a known 73 awards. From mid-1915 on, adding swords was allowed for these, by the way.

If we keep in mind the clasps didn't come until 1895, when Wilhelm II ruled, it's quite possible. I don't know, and I'm not sure if it is known at all, but it could well be possible. He was very close to Britain back then, after all!

Wow, congratulations! Rick Lundström and Daniel Krause published the Princely Hohenzollern rolls for the Great War in 2008, and they list no more than 145(!) awards for this "HEK3aX", usually to the rank of Major. Needless to say these are really, really tough to find!

It seems I was a bit unclear, sorry: with "messed up" I was refering to the improper precedence, not the bar itself, that one is beyond any doubt. I still have no better idea than a peace time HOH3 that was unusually misplaced... By the way, there were not too many HOH3 awarded, especially in those late years, under Wilhelm II's rule. Just like a dozen per year according to Ludvigsen, at best. It's odd we couldn't find him so far... those tricky Reserve/Landwehr officers!

From what the picture looks like, this was most certainly at Hermann Historica's from Munich!

Not intact "gilding", but a cross made in yellow and rose gold, as they were produced up until 1910. I'm close to 100% sure from the pictures this is one by the last and most usual maker, court jeweler C. F. Zimmermann from Pforzheim, who supplied these from 1897 on.

Daniel's "RK" is not the Royal Saxon "Hausorden der Rautenkrone", but probably the "Kriegsverdienstkreuz 1914" from the two Reuß principalities...

Just to be (over-) accurate: This AKO is a Prussian one, signed by Wilhelm II as Prussian king. This is not effecting any other Imperial German states' awards as the states had their change from gold to gilt individually, and it might be interesting to point out not all of them were even war related! While the kingdom of Bavaria was surprisingly close to Prussia, changing their orders from gold to gilt effectively on Jan 1st 1917, the kingdom of Saxony did it as early as 1902(!), and the Grand Duchy of Baden followed in 1910 with orders and in (still pre-war!) 1914 with their golden merit medals.

All of these are gold, if they're authentic and officially produced. Prussia didn't change to gilt silver until almost 50 years after this type was obsolete. I'd love to see a picture of the mark! From what I have seen, many of these are unmarked... and "Wilh" cannot be what it reads. Maybe "AW"? Another common maker for such crosses could be "WILM", but not for the early type crosses, as far as I know. With that flaw on the upper cross arm, "pristine" would not be my choice of words.

After a ten year hiatus I've been to the Zollern yesterday, and it was as great as you can imagine! The exhibition saw some changes since Claudio shot this pictures in 2013, and I really couldn't dare to do some new ones, but there is some good news: Due to the current Covid19 situation, there are no group tours now. Instead, you are free to move around at your own pace in what they call "Royal Castle Stroll" or "Königliches Flanieren" in German! For an average visitor, this might be some drawback, but I couldn't be happier to have enough time for a close look at the displayed orders and decorations of Wilhelm I, Wilhelm II and Auguste Victoria. And again, and again... my friends, who are not really into awards were pretty patient as well, luckily. One sad thing however: Some of the attributions cannot be correct, like a Prussian Royal Crown Order 2nd class cross attributed to Kaiser Wilhelm II, or the same with diamonds to his wife Kaiserin Auguste Victoria?! Also, some descriptions had major flaws, with several awards allegedly being made from cast iron instead of the stamped bronze or zinc they actually are. Well, awards are definitely not their main competence... still absolutely worth every visit, if you have a chance!

With all due respect, I tend to disagree: In my eyes, this is a veteran from Hessen-Darmstadt who was involved in the suppression of the democratic revolt in Baden in 1849... the size of the medals, their suspensions and even style of ribbons fits. I also wouldn't assume this man to be extremely old...

This is a third class cross of the second type which was introduced in ca. 1862/63 and was abolished in 1869. From the pictures, it looks fine to me. There were only two makers officially involved making these in the 1860s, from what I have heard, but I couldn't attribute it to the one or the other with only these pictures.

I'm not too much into those battle clasps, but the Godet quality and the fact this is a full display set redeems everything! An absolutely amazing piece, without exaggeration of museum quality. Thanks for sharing, saxcob!

I'm surprised, very surprised by those prices and only paid a fraction for mine, but in my eyes, this is the classical EK reference. It's true the picture quality is obviously 1980s standard, but the shown pieces... I do not know another EK book that doesn't show any (zero!) bullshit crosses. Seems the book became a collectible itself, as do many good, old books when they are out of print. To be honest, this one and Wernitz' 2013 work are the only (printed) references I'm frequently using on Prussian EKs!