Great Dane

Gentlemen, Thought I would kick off the new year by showing this Swedish miniature bar. Not really directly my field of interest (Danish ODMs), but the couple of Danish miniatures had me going for it. It belongs to an - apparently compassionate - Swede (name unknown), with all the Red Cross related awards. The ODMs are (I apologize if the english translations are not 100% the correct one): 1. Sweden. Home Guard Medal of Merit in Gold 2. Sweden. Swedish Red Cross Medal of Merit in Gold 3. Sweden. Swedish Red Cross Medal of Merit in Silver 4. Sweden. Swedish Civil Defense Assoc. Medal of Merit in Silver 5. Sweden. Swedish Civil Defense Assoc. Badge of Merit in Gold 6. Sweden. Swedish Red Cross Badge of Merit 7. Sweden. Unknown 8. Denmark. Medal of Liberty - Pro Dania 9. Denmark. Danish Red Cross Badge of Honour 10. Norway. Order of St. Olav 11. Norway. Norwegian Red Cross Badge of Honour 12. Finland. Order of Liberty 13. Finland. Winter War Commemoration Medal (in bronze for foreigners) 14. France. Legion of Honour 15. Belgium. Order of Leopold I 16. Poland. Polish Red Cross medal 17. Greece. Greek Red Cross medal (with 2 stars on ribbon) Some of the ribbons are a bit faded on the front - especially the blue colour. What I would like to know is - of course - who the recipient was, although I don't expect anyone here to come up with an answer. I know the Danish Red Cross award (no. 9) has only been awarded 51 times (until 1990), but I don't know of any official lists of recipients. Ah, well... something to do in the new year But maybe you gentlemen can answer these questions: What is award no. 7? The reverse is blank but with Swedish hallmarks. It is obviously Swedish but what is it? What does the 2 stars on the Greek Red Cross ribbon signify? I'll post a closeup of the unknown Swedish award in the next post. /Mike

Kim, Ooh... interesting... do you have a date for the Elephant award? It must be between 1904 and 1912? /Mike

Out of curiosity I looked him up (read: browsed through endless lists of names written in fracture script and listed by date...) and found him: Denmark, Dannebrog Grand Cross: 17. September 1884 Denmark, Dannebrog Silver Cross: 24. April 1898 So it is quite an interesting photo showing a foreigner wearing the Dannebrog Silver Merit Cross (normally reserved for Danes, the Royal Family and 'special circumstances'). Especially interesting because he didn't earn it during the 1848-50 war where the Dannebrog Silver Cross was used as a bravery decoration - mostly because we had nothing else... /Mike

Or is that a Dannebrog Silver Cross hiding partly behind his Vasa breast star? /Mike

Hi Christer, Very nice photos indeed! I see that Conrad Victor Ancarcrona wears his Danish Participation Medal for the 1848-50 Prussian-Danish war (far right on his chest on the photo). This seems to be all the thanks he got... no Dannebrog Knight or Dannebrog Silver Cross for bravery... I like the officers with the Persian orders - please show me more if you have... /Mike

"General der Infanterie Frh. v. Soden bei dem ich Batls Adjutant war." Oh, I was too fast... should have known that Rick would sort it out... /Mike

Lars, you're right. Rolf Christensen's book places this star pattern in the 1940s, while Stevnsborg says it was introduced in 1909. I believe Stevnsborg is correct. Jeff, be aware that only some of these stars (about 30-40% in my experience) will have a year scratched on the inside. You may also find the word "oppud" followed by a year, which means that the star was refurbished or cleaned that year. /Mike

Spot on, Ed Since we were very late to abandon the embroidered stars (1909), these were often mounted on a silver plate (cheaper than ordering a privately made all metal version, I guess...) to ease moving them to other uniforms. /Mike

Do you have a bag full of these things...? "SG" is the assay master mark for Simon Groth (master 1863-1904). /Mike

But the star pattern itself resembles Michelsen's pattern introduced in 1947. I have never seen this 'modern' pattern on any older private stars (and I have seen quite a few...). And the cross itself seems to be 100% identical to the modern type except for the lack of white enamel. Older types normally differ in shape, letters, crown etc. /Mike

Since I'm the writer behind the outcry above (was it in another thread on GMIC...?), I'd like to comment a bit more. Yes, the group was all sorts of medals and badges - some named, some unnamed - belonging to Lindner and it will never be joined again. What a great shame that such a historic group was split up for that little extra profit /Mike

Strange... It definitely looks like one of Michelsen's, both the star design, the letters and the double pin is a known 'pattern'. Any trace of white enamel on the front at all...? /Mike

I agree with you that it looks masonic. Maybe you should post it in that subforum? Cause I'm blank... /Mike

I wouldn't call it standard, but it occurs. The most common variety is the stars without any text at all, followed by the ones with the makers name (and address) and then the ones with notes of the recipient. The latter was done by the recipients themselves (i.e. it wasn't official practice). /Mike

Which of course makes the text on your star: Cai Ditlev Hegerman Linden- crone (generallieut- nant) - 31. Marts 1865 - f. 17. Maj 1807 /Mike

From the Danish Court- and State Calender: Order of Dannebrog - Grand Cross: 31. Marts 1865 Hs. Excell. Cai Ditlev v. Hegermann-Lindencrone (D.M. 13/9 48), (S.Sv.1.), (N.St.O.1.), (R.St.A.1.), Generallieutnant a la suite, Kammerherre. which translates to something like: 31. March 1865 His Excellency Cai Ditlev v. Hegermann-Lindencrone (Dannebrog Silver Merit Cross 13/9 1848), (Swedish Order of the Sword - GC), (Norwegian Order of St. Olav - GC), (Russian Order of St. Anne - GC), Lieutenant-General a la suite, Chamberlain. He was born on 17/5 1807 (died 1893). /Mike

I don't know exactly. The statutes (from 1737) mentions 25 ladies who would live at the place and 330 who would not. Furthermore there are limitations on how many 'retired' ladies who would receive a pension etc. etc. The no. of ladies would probably vary widely over the years (there were a LOT of rules to fulfill - being noble and unmarried were just a few of them) and I don't know if the old statutes were followed to the letter later on. I guess the privately purchased stars were non-returnable, but the badges would probably be returned after the death of the recipient. /Mike

And the illustration from Gritzner's (slightly inaccurate) book "Handbuch der im Deutschen Reiche, in Oesterreich-Ungarn, D?nemark, Schweden und den Russischen Ostseeprovinzen bestehenden Damen-Stifter..." from 1893. /Mike

This particular star looks pretty 'clean' compared to my own and others I've seen, but it was probably made around 1880-1900. The metal stars were likely privately purchased stars - much like the embroidered Dannebrog stars which were frequently replaced with a purchased metal version (the metal version became official after 1909). The members wore a badge in a sash. The 'headmaster' wore the same badge (but set with diamonds) and sash and the breast star shown here. The Vall? Stift still exists, but they don't wear the insignias anymore (at least not that I know of...). Here are some pictures of other stars (you can see the slight variations in the rays between the cross arms) /Mike

Daniel is indeed right in identifying this star. And 'AM' is Michelsen's hallmark. Jeff, let me know if you need help with any Danish translations. /Mike

Neither am I. But here is an example from the Danish Army (I think this one dates from the 60s) /Mike

No, not really. It could be anything from 40 to 80 years old I guess... /Mike

Thanks Mike. That was my impression as well, but I'm by no means an expert on these /Mike

This is the best I can do (but it's basically just an upscaling of the previous picture(s))... /Mike

Here is the reverse. These 2 pictures in these sizes are all I have. It's from an auction catalog. /Mike