Red Eagle Order question

[Nico]

Hello gents,

I've got a question about the Red Eagle Order, actually the 4th class.

Were there makers using painted medaillons from other makers?

Let me explain my thoughts a bit better. Can we find for example a WILM maker marked REO 4th with a Neuhaus & Sohn medaillon? Would this be genuine, a repair or something else?

Thanks and regards,

Nicolas

[Wild Card]

Hi Nicolas,

I think that this is a very good question; and I wish that I could give you a definitive answer, but regrettably can not. I would, however, like to pose a similar hypothetical situation using examples with which I am more familiar that, for me, does answer it.

Let?s say that, in 1914, the Brunswick Orders Chancellery received a knight?s badge, to the Order of Henry the Lion, with a damaged center medallion, from the family of a deceased recipient who had received it in 1900. Having been awarded in 1900, this badge would have been made by Siebrecht; and as such would have a ?tail down? horse.

Now, since J?rgens replaced Siebrecht in 1912 as the house jeweler, does the chancellery:

A. Send the piece to Siebrecht so that the badge has a medallion like it?s original. or,

B. Send the piece to J?rgens who is now the official purveyor, even though the badge will now have a J?rgens style ?tail up? horse.

I would be very comfortable voting on ?B?.

While we?re on the subject, I would like to raise another question which is more applicable to your Red Eagle. Is it possible that the medallions were, as we say, ?out sourced?? After all, the jewelers were primarily metalworkers; so why not do the fine metal work, make the corpus and farm the medallions out to the starving artist down the street? This, of course, sets up all sorts of possibilities.

I guess that I have raised more questions than I have answered, for which I apologize; but hopefully some of the more knowledgeable members will grab a hold of this one and run with it.

Thanks for raising it,

Wild Card