Help with Franco-Prussian Medalbar

[Tom Yanacek]

Hello to all,
Here is a Franco-Prussian medalbar, that is unfortunately missing the last medal on the bar. I can't figure out what medal is missing from the bar though. The ribbon is yellow and it has blue edges, although in the obverse photo the edges appear black. They are definitely blue though and the color is better observed in the photo of the reverse. Any help with identifying what medal belongs on this bar would be apreciated. Would the Kaiser Birthday Medal ever have been mounted on anything other than an all yellow ribbon?
Thanks & best regards! Tom

[Tom Yanacek]

reverse photo (note that this photo better shows the blue color on the yellow ribbon)

[Tom Yanacek]

A view under the protective backing, which is only sewn in along the top of the bar.

[Wild Card]

Ribbon ID

Hi Tyanacek,

This bar appears to have belonged to a senior Hessian (Kassel) officer - I’ve never seen a Wilhelm’s Orden knight’s badge on a bar before! As to the last ribbon, this is most likely to a Württemberg MMO knight’s badge.

I hope that this information is helpful and congratulations - you have a very very rare group there!

Best wishes,

Wild Card

[landsknechte]

The last ribbon looks like the Austrian Order of the Iron Crown, IMHO.

--Chris

[Chris Wainwrigh]

[quote=landsknechte]The last ribbon looks like the Austrian Order of the Iron Crown, IMHO.

--Chrisuote] I agree with Chris it looks like the Order of the Iron Crown 3rd class.

[David Müldner]

Hi Tyanacek!

Would you have the name of the officer the bar belongs to? I am a kurhessian freek, hence my question

Thanks

David

[Claudius]

That's a nice bar!

Pardon the obvious... but that's a great bar! I can't speak for anyone else, but I really dig the medium length bars with a couple of uncommon medals on them.

Is that a recent acquisition, or have you held if for a while before looking to identify the last medal?

Congrats....want to sell it? (bad Claudius, bad bad. Down, heel, now behave... ) Sorry. I like those size bars almost as much as I like German Tsingtau and Imp. Germ. aviation groups.

[Tom Yanacek]

A big thank you!

Thanks to everyone for the assistance with this medalbar. An Austrian Order of the Iron Crown would be a very hard item to find, wouldn't it? I think that the order was probably removed and returned upon the death of the original recipient. I don't think someone would have removed the order just to sell the item individually, but then again, stranger things have happened.

Hello David,
Sorry, but I don't have any information on the officer that owned this medalbar. I do think that it may be possible to find out with a bit of researching. It would be nice to have a name and face placed to this medalbar once again.

Hello Claudius,
Sorry, but this medalbar is not for sale. I always wanted to own a nice medalbar from the Franco-Prussian War. All my other medalbars are WWI and WWII. This is a very recent find. This past weekend to be exact.

Best regards! Tom

[Wild Card]

Missing medal

I don't know. I'm still leaning towards the Wurttemberg MMO. The key of course is the side stripe. It's hard to tell, for sure from the pictures, are the side stripes blue = Austrian Iron Crown or black = Wurttemberg MMO?

Best wishes,

Wild Card

P.S. Hey Claudio! I was here first!! Just kidding.

[Tom Yanacek]

Hello Wild Card,
The edge stripes are definitely blue, not black. I think it is the ribbon for the Order of the Iron Crown. It would also make sense that the order was placed last on the bar, after the long service award, because the Austrian Order would be a foreign award on this bar.
Best regards! Tom

[David Müldner]

Well I could run the OEK WRK combination through my literature. I think he would have received his EK not in 1870 but sometime earlier, right? Otherwise this bar would be in the 1890's and the WilhelmsRitter were only awarded until 1866, so he would have been really old to live to get his 25 years on his EK, right?

[Tim Tezer]

How does one get an 1870 Iron Cross before 1870?

Regarding the Austrian Iron Crown Order, for this bar you would need a gold one, not one of the much more common bronze gilt specimens awarded during WW1. That could cost about 900 to 1000 euros, even from an Austrian source. The place you're most likely to find one is at Dorotheum auction house.

Tim

[Daniel Krause]

Hi,

extremely niiiice medal bar and as it is always fun to ID such an easy unique combo:

Georg Christian Emanuel von Bauer was born in 1823, raised up unitl Prussian Major General on 22.03.1876, retired in 1879 as Cdr 8th Field Artillery Brigade and died in 1903.
Awards:
Red Eagle 2 with oaks
Crown Order 2 with star
EK2 1870
Hesse William 3
Hesse XXV
... and indeed an Iron Crown 3 from Austria

Best regards

Daniel

[David Müldner]

`Hi Daniel!

How did you manage to find these details? Really interesting! Actually the von Bauer descends from the kurhessian Generalleutnant Johann Philipp Bauer, a Grand Cross of the HGL, who died in 1851. The General and I are related, but I am probably closer related to my future wife... As a matter of fact 2 sons and a grandson of the General JP Bauer were ennobled. The family lives in Canada now.

Bye

David