Henry the Lion Commander cross Pic

[Mike Huxley]

A friend of mine on another forum recently aquired this CDV of a high ranking naval officer wearing many awards including a Henry the Lion Commander cross. Can a name be put to this CDV? Would feel that he is a member of the Royal Houshold for Brunswick?

[Ed_Haynes]

Wow! The Chinese award is the nicest piece!!!!!!!!!!

[Riley1965]

Wow! The Chinese award is the nicest piece!!!!!!!!!!

Is the bottom neck award the Chinese award? Also, which one is Henry the Lion?

Doc

[Great Dane]

The top neck order is Henry the Lion, followed by the Russian Order of St.Anne, the Russian Order of St. Stanislaus and then the Chinese Order of the Double Dragon.

/Mike

[Guest Rick Research]

This is Herwarth Schmidt von Schwind (1866-1941) circa 1905 as Korvettenkapit?n zur See (8.10.1902) and (the aiguilettes) Personal Adjutant of Prince Heinrich of Prussia-- in which capacity he served from 1 October 1901 to 30 September 1905.

He had these awards in 1905.

Final rank Vizeadmiral zS 14.10.17 as commander of central Baltic minesweeping and patrol forces.

Great portrait.

[Mike Dwyer]

Is the bottom neck award the Chinese award? Also, which one is Henry the Lion?

Doc

The Henry the Lion is the very first, or top, cross. Since you can't really see the Henry the Lion in all it's glory here's a photo:

[Stogieman]

Outstanding image from your pal Mike. Outstanding....

[W McSwiggan]

What was the end-of-war gong tally if I might ask???

[Guest Rick Research]

1914 =

KO2

BrH2b

CD III.1

JZ3

RA2

RSt2

MG2c

WK2c

SpMK2

RAO3mSchl

RAO4mKr

HOH3

XXV

China-St

1897

HP3a

GV4

NO3a

added during the war

RAO2XmE (removing the RAO3mSchl)

BMV2X

EK1 and 2

OK 1 and 2

and

BrH

[Mike Huxley]

Rick,

Fantastic Thanks for this, I've let my friend know .... and I think he may soon be a member here. He has some fantastic Imperial awards that I know we would all appreciate seeing posted on this forum.

Many thanks again Rick.

[Guest Rick Research]

The only thing I cannot identify is what appears to be a MEDAL between the Royal Victorian Order and the Saint Olaf Order on his Medal bar. Maybe one of the Scandinavian wedding or jubilee medals of that era?

[epsomgreen]

Greetings to All:

I am the friend Mr. Huxley persuaded to join your company.

Rick, thank you for all the information regarding von Schwind. Hopefully, these additional scans will be useful. I must say that Ferd. Urbahns, the portrait photographer, had one heck of a lens. The amount of detail revealed by the digital enlargement is amazing.

Best regards,

Charles

[Guest Rick Research]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh yes-- King Edward VII's Coronation medal-- that must have been when he picked up the Royal Victorian Order as well.

There have never been clearer photos than those 19th century glass plate negative monsters.

Terrific portrait!

[Riley1965]

The Henry the Lion is the very first, or top, cross. Since you can't really see the Henry the Lion in all it's glory here's a photo:

Hello Mike,

WOW!!! That's a BEAUTIFUL Order!!! Thanks for the information and the great pics.

Doc

[drclaw]

Gents, I'm trying to track down more information about Schmidt von Schwind, in particular when he received his Chinese Double Dragon.

Did he serve in China during the Boxer Rebellion? This would seem most likely as a number of Allied captains and majors received the Third Class around 1901 in the aftermath of the crisis.

[Glenn J]

He was granted permission to wear the Double Dragoon per Order of 12 December 1894 as published in the Marine-Verordnungsblatt. He had been serving as the First Officer of the Gunboat SMS Iltis on the East Asian Station. He was the Artillery officer of SMS Brandenburg during the Boxer Rebellion and as such received the Chinadenkmünze für Kämpfer.

Regards

Glenn

[drclaw]

Thanks Glenn, this is much appreciated. 

The First Type Double Dragon neck badges were awarded right up to 1901.  Breast stars were introduced around 1894 and there were a flurry of awards in 1896 to German citizens with the star corpus made by Godet. This likely coincided with the visit of Viceroy Li Hongzhang to Germany that year.

It appears that where awards were conferred in Beijing, they were the First Type neck badge only.