A nice Lippe medal bar

[JensF.]

I think this combination is not very common. The Lippe Military Merit Medal with swords was only awarded to members of the II. Btl. of Infanterie-Regiment 55. Only wounded soldiers who hadn't an EK were awarded this medal (only 1950 were awarded). It seems that this soldier was wounded and got the MMM first. Later in the war he got the other two medals.

-EKII 1914 with maker "S-W"

-Lippe-Detmold: War Merit Cross 2. Class

-Lippe-Detmold: Military Merit Medal with swords

-Hindenburg-Cross

[Claudio]

Sehr Sch?n Jens!

The military Merit medal with swords is not so common... I don't have a medal bar with such medal, yet...

[JensF.]

Back:

[Deruelle]

Beautiful Jens very nice medal bar

Christophe

[Stogieman]

Great bar and I missed the end of this auction or I would have been trying for it too. The interesting thing is he actually sold it earlier this month (??) In any event, the second time this same bar appeared in Germany! Nice coup!

[Guest Rick Research]

Nice to see you've found a new interest in the gaps between real silver wound badges, Jens!

I can not remember the last time I've seen one of these medals on a bar. I've only seen THREE on ribbon bars, and two of those belonged to the same recipient.

So here again is one of those not particularly "exciting" looking, but true Imperial treasures!

[Bob Hunter]

It is a great bar! Thanks for sharing it with us.

[Tony]

Very nice Jens,

You know you should really donate the bar to someone living in the area where the 55th came from

Was the II Btl. stationed in H?xter, Detmold or Bielefeld?

Tony

[David Gregory]

Hi Tony,

II./IR 55 was garrisoned in Bielefeld.

David

[Tony]

Thanks David!

Yes I really think you should donate the bar to someone living in Bielefeld Jens.

Tony (living in Bielefeld)

[JensF.]

>Tony (living in Bielefeld)

What a really strange coincidence...

[Stogieman]

Just an FYI, but a slightly larger bar with this medal was sold recently in Canada. Snapped up almost instantly. Rick is quite right, think scarce to an extreme!

[JensF.]

Rick, do you have pics and the price of that bar?

[Stogieman]

Hi Jens, no the pix/prices were gone when I found it.

[Claudio]

What about this spange? It was on Zeige's catalogue, I think last year. It came with other medals of the same recipient (officer). It didn't sell the first time this bar came out on a auction's catalogue, but was sold later separately...

The order of the medals, more precisely of the KVK 2. Kl. without swords (also with the front worn backwards), is not correct, but I think it was quite a common mistake to misplace medals like KVK or WiO.

If Jens' bar is rare... imagine this!

Ciao,

Claudio

Edited October 14, 2005 by Claudio

[Claudio]

this is a black and white scan of Zeige's catalogue...

[Claudio]

Detail of the Steck/Offizierskreuz...

[Stogieman]

And that Lippe House Order ranks right up there in quality, detail & design in any grade you choose........

[JensF.]

Great items Claudio! Yep, Lippe has something really special...

[Bob Hunter]

Again, Claudio, I am most impressed.

[notned]

Awesome stuff guys!

Now i wanna Lippe medalbar....boohooo....

[Dave Danner]

Notwithstanding Zeige, I would doubt that cross had anything to do with that bar. The late Eric Ludvigsen's research at the archives in Detmold and B?ckeburg found the following for awards of the Officer's Cross

Lippe-Detmold:

Officers' Cross - 1890-1913 (15), 1914-1918 (33)

Officer's Cross with Swords - 1890-1913 (0), 1914-1918 (37)

Schaumburg-Lippe:

Officers' Cross - 1890-1913 (186), 1913-1918 (62)

Officer's Cross with Swords - 1890-1913 (0), 1913-1918 (0)

Officer's Cross with Swords on Ring - 1890-1913 (0), 1913-1918 (1)

Officer's Cross with 50-Year Jubilee - 1890-1913 (2), 1913-1918 (0)

As for the medal bar, the combination is a little questionable. The precedence indicates a Schaumburger, not a Detmolder. Lippe-Detmold's Milit?rverdienstmedaille was primarily (exclusively?) an enlisted award to its own citizens. Also, the Honor Cross is the pre-1911 version with white enamel.

Perhaps it was a Schaumburger who received his state's Honor Cross as a civilian before 1911, then moved to Lippe-Detmold and served as an enlisted man during the war, but then put Schaumburg-Lippe first when he had the medals remounted after 1939.

But if I had to guess, I would speculate that the second medal was originally a Lippe-Detmold Honor Cross 4th Class 2nd Division, received as a Leutnant, with which the Schaumburg-Lippe piece was replaced at some point. And the MVM would have been received as an officer candidate.

Any thoughts?

[Bob Hunter]

Here is a nice tight little two place Lippe-Detmold medal bar.

Edited December 14, 2005 by Bob Hunter

[Bob Hunter]

and the reverse

[Solomon]

Hi,

i?m new here in this forum.

I?m a collector from Germany, living -believe it or not- in Bielefeld, about 20 km away from Detmold.

Of course therefore I collect everything of Lippe-Detmold (and Imperial badges and medals...).

Here is a photo of a small medal-bar with military merit medal Lippe-Detmold.

Additional info: There were less than 2,000 awards of this medal (about 1,945 medals with swords).

Greetings Solomon

P.S. Sorry for my english..i?ve to train it more

Edited December 22, 2005 by Solomon