Beau Newman

The previous topic on the Gustav Klein group brought to mind this group that has always intigued me. I haven't held out much hope of knowing the recipient in spite of the unusual combination. The only clue to its Wurttemberg roots in the 20 year reserve cross. As far as I know there are no rolls on the Saxe-Weimar cross. Perhaps the Swedish North Star Knight is the key?

The reverses:

At an OMSA convention in the late '90's, I found these boards on the table of the late Gordon Arnold, who usually dealt exclusively in Orders & Medals. Gordon was a well known authority on the Oldenburg Peter Friedrich Ludwig House Order. Somehow, he got these boards in a deal in Germany. Why only one of each, I have no idea. I recognized the cyphers as the 19th Oldenburg Dragoons and the 91st Oldenburg Infantry. Being general officer style, I can only think that these are both fo the Regimental Chef, who happened to be Friedrich August himself for both regiments. Are there any other possibilities for what these might be?

The "B.H." is probably "G.H." for Gebruder Hemmerle, a well known Munich maker of most of the Bavarian orders and awards.

No marks that I can find. It does test as gold and appears to be typical of ca. 1890 - 1910 German manufacture. Only the ribbon makes it unusual.

I picked up this Knight 1st Class of the Zahringen Lion several years ago. It has a French style rosette on the ribbon. Both the ribbon and rosette are nicely aged and appear to be period. I haven't been able to find anything in the references on this type of ribbon device for the Zahringen. Perhaps a foreign recipient?

Tony was always a pleasure to be around and has been sorely missed at the shows and conventions. Guys like Tony, as well as Neal O'Connor, George Seymour and Eric Ludvigsen always made it worth the trip even when the hunting wasn't so good. One of Tony's groups - by way of Phil Mitchell.

I noticed in Post #38 that Wild Card showed a great little group with a Waldeck Military Verdienst Cross, 2nd Class. The military version did not have the black enameled starburst at the center and had a crowned "GV" on a red background instead of a cross on a white background. The regular VKs and military VKs are easily confused. Here is an example of the 3rd Class Military VK. http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_02_2009/post-6181-1235358777.jpghttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_02_2009/post-6181-1235358811.jpg

The Hessian infantry pattern sword is seen in both plain and lionhead styles. They are also seen with the Hessian lion on the handguard instead of the cypher.

And the reverse blade engraving.

The blade presentation to Hauske.

The Ernst Ludwig cypher on the handguard.

The Hilt.

Here it is.

I will try to get some photos up this weekend.

Excellent info. - many thanks!

I have a damascus Hessian pattern sword presented to Obermusikmeister Hauske in 1911. I found that information on bandleaders was hard to come by as they don't show up in the Ranklists. However, by doing a search on his name and rank, I was able to find the music database below that at least told me that he was name Hugo Hauske, was with the 115th Liebgarde Regt. from 1907 to 1918 and his dates of birth and death. Nothing on awards & etc. but, much more than I had. The site is searchable by occupation so, it may have info. on other titles and ranks for musicians. The link below takes you to the list of approx. 40 Obermusikmeisters in their database. http://musicsack.com/PersonFMT_Occ.cfm?Occ=Obermusikmeister

I got this group from the late Gordon Arnold 10-15 years ago. Sorry I can't provide a recipient. The mounting and awards say "Navy" to me and the combo with the Princely and Prussian Hohenzollerns is uncommon but, so far, I haven't had any luck.

Many thanks for eveyone's input.

It appears to be green and white. If so, it's probably Saxon long service.

And the reverse:

I normally avoid 1 piece EKs like the plague but, I came across this one several years ago and it intersted me enough to buy it. The detail and quality of the screwback is very good and the age and wear looks honest. The cross is made from some kind of white metal with the center painted black. I have not seen another exactly like it since so, I don't think it is a widely made copy. Have any of you run into a similar piece?

One of my favorites, even though he is an untraceable enlisted man. The 1st award is the 1st type MVK (silver with gold centers) and not the order. The swords were not actually added until the 1890's. The campaign bars are the standard II BAK combo.

It is a combatant medal. I agree that it is odd not to have a LS award on there somewhere. With the War Service Medal, he apparently saw some action.

I expect that this guy was getting a little long in the tooth by the time he served in China.