Regimental Meissen plate 181 Regiment

[nzef1940]

Greetings all

Please have a look at this, I am thinking its for Saxon Regiment 181, and the dates signify the regiments participation in Kaiser Manouveres?

Any thoughts on what the 1.4 stands for?

[nzef1940]

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[nzef1940]

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[Chip M]

One book says the regimental Stiftungstag (founding day) was 1.4.1900. Another says the Errichtungjahr (founding year) was 1887. Both dates are on the plate, so I am not sure what the subtle difference is. Perhaps someone else can clear that up?

Chip

[nzef1940]

Many thanks Chip

Very good news so far.

cheers

Mike

One book says the regimental Stiftungstag (founding day) was 1.4.1900. Another says the Errichtungjahr (founding year) was 1887. Both dates are on the plate, so I am not sure what the subtle difference is. Perhaps someone else can clear that up?

Chip

[90th Light]

Greetings all

Any thoughts on what the 1.4 stands for?

"April fool's day"

I have got two of these must post some images of mine,

Chris

p.s. the "15" in the hunting horn is very interesting plus the fact that the plate is green on white for Jager not the traditional blue on white which my two are.

[nzef1940]

Green is also the Saxon state colour, what state are your plates from Bavaria? If so, that would be blue on white...

[90th Light]

Green is also the Saxon state colour, what state are your plates from Bavaria? If so, that would be blue on white...

Oh so that is why Meissen is famous for its blue on white porcelain not its green on white

and yes my plates are Bavarian if their regiments had cyphers based on the King of Saxony initials of "AR" plus they have the sunburst of Saxony in the backround not the two Lions & wappen of Bavaria.

Green on white is what Meissen made their "Jager" plates in such as "JB 12" Your plate has a Jager connection with that 15 & hunting horn on it.

In fact, please explain what the 15 & horn stand for, JB 15 ???

Interesting,

Chris

[nzef1940]

Maybe the 15th company was a specific Jager company for the Regiment?

Oh and Chris the Meissen factory was located in Saxony, I dont know if they also manufactured DAK hats though?

[90th Light]

Maybe the 15th company was a specific Jager company for the Regiment?

Oh and Chris the Meissen factory was located in Saxony, I dont know if they also manufactured DAK hats though?

Yes I know they were in Saxony near Dresden (In fact Meissen is actually a town only a few miles from Dresden, the name Meissen has been applied generically to the company that discovered and made porcelain in that that town) and they were the first company in Europe to work out how to make fine paste porcelain just over 300 years ago which they decorated with a blue glaze. That is why their plates are usually blue and white not green and white but of course you can sometimes get green on white and in rare cases even other colors

Because they were Saxon it is very unlikely that they made many plates for the Bavarians hence why the Saxon King's cypher being on a plate will be an elite Saxon military unit. They made plates for every imperial Saxon unit that there ever was. In fact I am sitting here wondering if I have ever seen a Meissen plate for a Bavarian unit.

Did Saxon imperial regiments have a 15 company ???

Chris

[90th Light]

Just gone through my reference books and I have found it;

Infanterie Regiment (15 Koniglich Sachsisches) Nr. 181

Kgl. Sachs. 2. Jager-Batl. Nr.15 (Dresden) Xll Armee Korps was disbanded on 30 March 1900 to bring newly formed Kgl. Sachs. 15 Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 181 up to strength on 1 April 1900 and to reflect a Jager element in that regiment so that it could under take a specialist light infantry role as required.

so I am correct and this plate commemorates the amalgamation of the two units on the 1st of April 1900;

- green on white representing the Jager tradition of the 15 Jager Battalion
- hunting horn showing the new Jager element of regiment 181
- "15" having a double meaning of both the 15th Jager Battalion and the 15th Saxon Infanterie Regiment being regiment 181 on the German Reich list.

I presume that the 181 Infanterie Regiment (15 Saxon IR) was originally formed as a unit in 1887 may be even 1 April 1887 hence the 1887 & 1900 years.

Very nice and very interesting and usually Saxon regimental plates are the traditional blue and white of Meissen so green on white is a nice find,

See a lot more to my depth than just "DAK caps",

Chris

p.s. The only thing still not explained is the year 1912 at the bottom of the plate. Hopefully they were not on the Titanic.
The meaning of that date could in fact be 1 April 1912 so I wonder what happened then ???

[90th Light]

Just had a thought,

1 April 1887 to 1 April 1912 is a period of 25 years.

I bet Meissen put this plate out to commemorate the silver anniversary (25 years) on 1 April 1912 of this regiment which was formed in 1887 and ammalgamated with the the 15th Jager Battalion (Saxon JB2) in 1900.

You know I think I might just have cracked it on this one,

Chris

[nzef1940]

Excellent work Chris, Many thanks.