Lippe Medals for Military Merit and Bravery, Plate XLVI, Wood Engraving, 1844

This is an original antique wood engraving, colored by hand, showing six medals of the two Lippe principalities, each hanging from a folded ribbon. In the top row, item 1 is a bronze medal with a crowned script monogram inside a laurel wreath, and item 2 a bronze medal with a five-petaled rose inside a wreath. In the middle row, item 3 is a silver medal with a leafy branch and a line of German script, and item 4 a silver medal with the rose above a small branch. These four hang from red ribbons with yellow stripes near each edge. In the bottom row, items 5 and 6 are the two faces of a silver medal on a light blue ribbon edged in white: a portrait head in profile on one side and a lettered inscription within an oak wreath on the other.

The running head at the upper left reads "LIPPE DETMOLD ET LIPPE-SCHAUMBOURG." and the plate number at the upper right reads "XLVI." Each medal carries a small figure below it. Item 1 is lettered "DEM MILITAIR-VERDIENSTE" (to military merit). The portrait side of item 5 reads "GEORG·WILH·R·FURST Z·SCH LIPPE &c" (Georg Wilhelm, reigning prince of Schaumburg-Lippe), and the reverse, item 6, reads "FUR TAFERKEIT UND TREUE." (for bravery and loyalty), the second word spelled as engraved.

The plate comes from Ordres de Chevalerie et Marques d'Honneur, published by Auguste Wahlen at Brussels, Librairie Historique-Artistique, rue de Schaerbeek, 12, in 1844; the half title reads Histoire, costumes, décorations de tous les ordres de chevalerie, et marques d'honneur. Auguste Wahlen was the pen name of the Belgian writer Jean-François-Nicolas Loumyer (1801 to 1875), and the title page lists his own knighthoods in orders of Prussia, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Hanover, Greece, the Roman States, Saxe-Coburg and Brazil. The plates are relief prints, wood engravings colored by hand with watercolor.

The two bright ribbon colors make a lively pair of rows, and the plate frames well on its own or with others from the German section of the book.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.