Something out of the ordinary

[Wild Card]

Gentlemen,

Our diverse specific collecting interests cause us each to define ?Holy Grail? differently. I would like to present a piece which comes very close to that status to me for several different reasons.

I had the good fortune of buying this piece at a recent auction. First it had a, shall I say, a personal attachment, because it came from the collection of a very close friend, now deceased. Over a period of almost twenty years, I never visited him and his collection without this piece coming out of it?s display case; it was my favorite.

This is a commander?s star to the Brunswick House Order of Henry the Lion.

[Wild Card]

As you can see, this particular star conforms to the description and related illustration found in the original statutes of 1834. In almost thirty years of collecting this order, I have never seen another example of this original design.

[Wild Card]

Somewhere along the way, the design was changed. I cannot say exactly when or why this change took place. Here is the related illustration from the 1861 statutes.

[Wild Card]

And here is a star of the modified design. Thank you for your interest.

[Guest Rick Research]

Given my druthers, I prefer the fish-scale version.

Could this be a change in the Court Jeweller? Might that help date the change-over? It seems an odd single thing to have altered. Is there any change to the "merry-go-round" enamel horse design found on the other classes, from the same period?

[Mike Dwyer]

Wild Card,

Breathtaking! I don't know what else to say. I too have a love of Henry the Lion above all others. I seriously doubt I will ever own a piece of any level of the order, but I love to look.

[speedytop]

Hi Wild Card,

are you sure, that you have original statutes of 1834?

This a copy from my statutes of 1834, and the inscription MDCCCXXXIV is placed like that, what you can find in "Ackermann" 1855 and "Gritzner" 1893(!), up in the medallion (see Post 1) and not down (see Post 2, 3 and 4).

Regards

Uwe

[Wild Card]

Given my druthers, I prefer the fish-scale version.

Could this be a change in the Court Jeweller? Might that help date the change-over? It seems an odd single thing to have altered. Is there any change to the "merry-go-round" enamel horse design found on the other classes, from the same period?

I tend to agree Rick. As you know, there were several decorations of that era, like the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha 25 year officer?s long service cross which was awarded from 1846 t0 1867, that had the ?fish-scale? arms; but I don?t think that any of them stayed around for very long.

Your court jeweler theory is an interesting concept. Look at how the court jeweler change in (was it?) 1912 that created the ?tail up/tail down? question. As near as I can tell, Lemme was the jeweler from 1834 to 1847, then Kausche took over from 1859 to 1879 which leaves the period from 1848 to 1858 unaccounted for.

I am not aware of any changes to the horse during that period; but there were a few minor changes to the cross insignia. In the end though, I think that some of these changes, like in 1912, might have been artistic license.

[Wild Card]

Hi Wild Card,

are you sure, that you have original statutes of 1834?

This a copy from my statutes of 1834, and the inscription MDCCCXXXIV is placed like that, what you can find in "Ackermann" 1855 and "Gritzner" 1893(!), up in the medallion (see Post 1) and not down (see Post 2, 3 and 4).

Regards

Uwe

Speedytop, this is terrific news!

Checking back, your suspicions are correct - my statutes are from 1843, not 1834. I was going by the title page, not the outside cover. So that narrows my star down to the period from 1843 to 1861.

Have you seen any other stars like mine or any of the version in your 1834 statutes?

Thank you for this information and best wishes,

Wild Card

[speedytop]

Hi Wild Card,

I only have the complete original statutes from 1834,

one "Ritterkreuz II. Klasse" and one award document for a "Ritterkreuz II. Klasse".

Regards

Uwe