Help in identifying some medals from German states 1813 to 1815.

[Herman]

Good evening,

 

I enclose a picture of the uniform of Dutch Field Marshall Prince Frederick of the Netherlands.

 

As a very young man he was an officer in the Prussian Army. In 1813 he became a Dutch Colonel. Later he was promoted to General and ultimately in 1840 to Field Marshall.

 

He appreciated the medals he was awarded in the war of 1813-1815 and wore them when he was in uniform.

In later life he was pictured on a painting in his Field Marshall uniform with his early medals.

The Iron Cross 1813 2nd class is obvious. The third medal is the Dutch Metal Cross 1830-31, the fourth medal is the Dutch Silver Cross 1813-15.

 

The rest is unknown to me sofar. The colours of the ribbons are hopefully correct and will help a bit. The medals are all painted without details which is unfortunate.

 

All help is welcome. 

 

Herman

 

Edited September 25, 2021 by Herman

[JohanH]

Could the second medal be the russian Order of St George?

 

Medal no. 8 (second from the right) is perhaps the Kriegsdenkmünze of 1813?

The ribbon of the last medal looks Russian to me. It looks almost like the ribbon for the Turkish campaign.

[Alex K]

30 minutes ago, JohanH said:

Could the second medal be the russian Order of St George?

 

Medal no. 8 (second from the right) is perhaps the Kriegsdenkmünze of 1813?

The ribbon of the last medal looks Russian to me. It looks almost like the ribbon for the Turkish campaign.

I would generally agree with this assesment

Edited September 24, 2021 by Alex K

[Metallica]

Hi Herman,

 

I'd list his bar as follows:

 

1) Prussia, Iron Cross

2) Russia, Order of Saint George

3) Netherlands, Cross for 1830-31

4) Netherlands, Silver Cross 1813-1815

5) ???

6) Netherlands,long service medal ???

7) Prussia, Kriegsdenkmünze 1813 or similar

8  Prussia, Erinnerungs-Kriegsdenkmünze 1863

9) Russia, Medal for the capture of Paris 1814

 

Numbers 7 and 8 are a bit tricky, as the colors of the ribbons shift once and are maybe not 100% correct.

I don't know if someone can put a rough date to the painting. With the EKDM 1863 being awarded quite late, maybe it is something totally different.

Also, I'd suspect to have the russian Paris medal be painted silver, and both prussian medals painted in bronze. But that might be an issue of the painter

 

A nice photograph of him is still on my own hit-list

 

Kind regards,

Leonard

Edited September 24, 2021 by Metallica

[Herman]

Johan,  Alex and Leonard, thanks for your replies.

 

This painting of the Prince was as an old man. He died in 1881. Thanks to your medal asessment I think number 5 is the Dutch Officers Cross. In this form it was awarded from 6 december 1866 onwards (till today).

The painting is therefore made between 1866 and 1881. It is exhibited in Palace Het Loo, in Apeldoorn,  the Netherlands.  

 

The Russian awards make sense as well as the Dutch Royalty was close to the Russian royalty with some in between marriages and all in those days.

 

That leaves medal nr 6 unattributed as a Dutch long service medal was only awarded to all military personell lower than the rank of 2nd Lieutenant.

 

Furthermore

 

Thanks a lot. This is very helpfull.

 

PS: The old Prince is also my avatar. ?

Regards

Herman 

Edited September 25, 2021 by Herman

[Herman]

In the Dutch Officers list of 1880 the Prince is mentioned with all his awards. The first person mentioned in the picture is the king William III and the second person is our guy.

 

I checked all mentioned awards. Most of them are Grand Crosses of German States like Hanover,  Baden,  Nassau, Hessen-Kassel, Oldenburg, Wurtemberg and countries like Spain, Russia, Portugal, Sweden and Norway and Austria.

 

Of the identified awards of his bar I recognize the following:

The small 4 arms cross in position 3 is the Dutch Metal Cross 1830-31,

Number four (65) is the Dutch Officers Cross with yearsign 65.

The small 5 arms cross on number 5 is the Dutch Silver Cross 1813-15,

SG4 on position 10 is the Russian Knight 4th class of the Order of St. George,

On position 29 (of 31), Ykr.2.kl, is the Prussian Iron Cross 2nd class of 1813.

 

The first award mentioned is the Grand Cross in the Dutch Military Williams Order, also visible in the picture under his medal bar.

 

 

The medals in position 6 to 9 in his above mentioned and shown medal bar are not in the list unfortunately. Medal number 7 to 9 are 100% identified with the help of some experts on this forum. 

 

So what could the unidentified medal in position 6 be? A Russian medal of St. George perhaps? Were they awarded for the wars in 1813-15? I saw one hanging from an yellow-orange ribbon. Could this be the one?

 

Happy sofar with the developments in this topic. 

 

Thanks very much, Regards

Herman