Saxony Ernestine Line, Defender of the Fatherland Medals, Plate LXXVI, 1844

This is an original antique wood engraving, colored by hand, showing medals and a cross of the Ernestine Saxon duchies. At top left is a dark green medal with a gold crown, lettered in yellow, on a green ribbon edged with black and yellow bars. At top right is a bronze medal showing a bundle of arrows bound with a band, lettered in Gothic script around the edge, on a ribbon striped green, black and yellow. In the center is a small cross with silver arms and a gold center bearing a crown over a Gothic monogram, on a green ribbon. At bottom left, on a green and white striped ribbon, are the two faces of a silver medal: one lettered, the other showing a cross within a laurel wreath. At bottom right is a gold medal with the crowned Saxon arms, lettered around the rim, on a red ribbon with green edges.

The running head reads "SAXE, BRANCHE ERNESTINE." (Saxony, Ernestine branch) and the plate number "LXXVI." The items are numbered 6 to 10. Medal 9 begins "JM·KAMPFE·FVER·DAS" (in the fight for the). Medal 7 reads "ERNST·H·Z·S·G·S· DEM VERTHEIDIGER DES VATEREANDES 1814" (Ernest, to the defender of the fatherland, 1814), with Vaterlandes printed as "VATEREANDES". Medal 10 reads "FUR GOTT UNE VATERTAND", a misprinted form of "Für Gott und Vaterland" (for God and fatherland).

The plate comes from Ordres de Chevalerie et Marques d'Honneur, published by Auguste Wahlen in Brussels by the Librairie Historique-Artistique, rue de Schaerbeek, 12, in 1844; its 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 the 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.

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