Gents,

I hope you all finished off the year with something nice to add to your collections..? Most of us likely received a sound financial-thrashing to our 401K plans, stock portfolios, holdings, etc, this past year, I'd venture to say - the upside being, it's always a great feeling to add that next good piece to our collections, no matter how large or how small. A thing of beauty, say, perhaps a fine dagger, an impeccable uniform or rare medal will certainly boost one's general state of well-being and morale. I guess it's sort of a zen-like thing, you know? Even if cash is a little harder to part with these days, go on, treat yourself, it'll make it that much mo' better !


Well, these are the last three pieces that I added to my collection this past 2008 collecting year, an interesting and attractive trio to add to my "shooting-department." These came to me as a Christmas gift from a very good friend and I'm very pleased to be able to share them with you fine gentlemen. Two are parts of old shooting chains that have unfortunately been taken apart, somewhere along the line..? These are individual segments that comprised a much larger Sch�tzen-K�nig's chain, the coveted prize that the top shooter would have been allowed to wear during his/her yearly reign. The articulated parts came in all shapes and sizes, some were minted and dated coins of the realm, some had large, ornamental silver discs, or decorated shields or crosses and all of various dimensions and patterns. Many of the parts would have been designed in both left and right halves, as the chain had to balance properly around the wearer's neck, remember, it grew steadily with the addition of each new king's award. With that in mind, let's have a look ...

The first link is of a stylized Jugendstil or Art-Nouveau design, with a flowing, gilded decorative border and floral/thistle motif. The central area is finely hand-engraved with the king's name, year of the award and the club's name, in this case Waldfrieden, or Forest-Freedom. I haven't researched the crest yet, but it's cut beautifully and the mustachioed little fella at the top is a joy to look at. The gilded reverse is patent-pending marked, as pattern no. 6. This is the first time I've seen such a large 'gesetzlich gesch�tzed' marking, have any of you guys seen anything similar to this one?

reverse ...

The second piece is a unique, fine assembly of silver awards to H. Petscheleit for the years 1931 and 1932. The larger central decoration tells us this was a special presentation, awarded for scoring sixty bullseyes in a row - three sets of perfect twenties, not too shabby at all, heh ... I don't think I'd like to have wandered into this guy's crosshairs at any time! No wonder he was working on his own personal chain, as you can see three additional mounting holes are drilled for further attachments. Also of interest is where this piece came from, the East Prussian coastal town of Pillau.

During World War II, Pillau had a U-boat training facility. In 1945, as the Red Army entered East Prussia, well over 450,000 refugees were ferried from Pillau to central and western Germany. After the war, this part of East Prussia passed to the Soviet Union, and the German inhabitants were expelled. During the Russification campaign, the town's name was changed to Baltiysk.

In 1952, the Soviet authorities inaugurated a naval base of the Baltic Fleet at Baltiysk. As a result, it became a closed town: access was forbidden to foreigners or those without a permit. During the Cold War it was served by the Baltiysk air base. The town, along with Kaliningrad, remains one of only two year-round, ice-free ports along the Baltic Sea coastline available to Russia.

Another notable thing about this group is the mis-spelling of the recipient's last name. In the first instance it's spelled "Petscheleit" and the second time below, "Petscheleid." They sound almost exactly the same so it's easy to spot the confusion, but I wonder which one's correct? heh ...

back ...

And that will take us to the last link, a silver, 4.5 inch oval disc that has a most unusual nautical motif used as its central theme. This is also another 'first' for me, I've never seen a shooting award before that had a ship or maritime image on it, has anyone else? The handsome old steamship is cut ever so precisely, I hope you can see the fine details to the engraver's technique, it's really top-notch. In particular I wanted you to see the work on the lines and the sails, I don't know if my photo does these areas any real justice? Once again you can see the mounting ring and pre-drilled holes where two additional balanced awards would have been attached to this 109 year old piece of history. I also wonder if this unit might have come from a port town similar to the Pillau example, or maybe a river-port town? On that note I'll steam off into the sunset ...

... calm seas and a prosperous journey, my friends ...

Your Captain,

Steamboat Willi

Bill,
I'm drooling! Gosh you find the best medals. You can certainly see the Art Nouveau design in that first piece and neat name for a club. I wonder if Waldfrieden might also be the name of the town as well and if the central design might represent the club? The mustachioed little fella could be what is called the Pritschmeister. This little fella had many duties but for the most part, this is the guy who ran around in his funny hat and costume with his baton punishing all those that violate festival rules. I might add that meant officials and bad shooters were fair game as well. I guess he was like the court jester or the fool, but with the power to enforce in a fun way of course.
Instead of a baton, this little fella has an axe. Yikes! I'd hate to be one of those bad shooters! Maybe he's poking a little fun at the club name; the forest isn't so free with a guy wielding an axe. lol..
I think your right with the steam ship, river-port town idea, with the wheel representing a target. I've seen them with lots of different types of wheels or (targets) from horse drawn carts to steam locomotives and anchors, but not a steam boat. It's all about history and symbolism I think. Have you found any maker marks? Bill, I really enjoy these things, great finds and of course just my two jests worth!

Mikee,

It's always good to get your feedback, as they say, you learn something new every day.
I've seen that little fellow's motif countless times over the years but never knew his name before. I looked up the word Pritsche and it makes perfect sense - harlequin's wooden sword or bat; to slap, beat or drub. So this boy would have been sort of an impish club mascot,
with a license to poke fun at his fellow club members at will - I do like it.
Something like a smaller version of our own Philly-Phanatic for a shooting club, heh...

I have to look into the Waldfrieden thing, but you're right, at this stage it could be either,
or. No maker markings on these units, though,
a bunch of silver content marks are scattered all over the place. I'll check to see if I can find some nice images of a Pritschmeister to add, would have have any on file?

Glad you enjoyed these examples, and please,
by all means, jest on!

Best!

SW

Bill,

From what I know and have seen from old drawings your definition of the Pritschmeister's baton is right on the mark. Please see the attached drawing. The costume isn't what I imagine, but it is what it is. There are old drawings that show the Pritschmeister's in medieval jester type costumes, just like your little fella.

Whether called a bat, wooden sword, baton, paddle or wand. I believe they're probably all correct in terms of what these things appear to look like and in fact it was probably up to the Pritschmeister's imagination and sense of humor what he wanted his baton to look like. I say this because in old drawings I saw, costume and baton are different in design, style, shape and size. But looks like the batons were a good size, about three feet. One thing is certain; you can tell what their intended purpose is. Some were made covered in padded leather, the business end of course, to soften that perfect blow to punish someone�s unsuspecting fourth point of contact. And made to make loud noises when swung or waved about. I guess a warning of fun loving serious intent, like maybe dispersing the drunkards off the shooting ranges.

Mikee,

You must have a fairly extensive library of reference material to just pop that nice illustration up there? I think I have an old German costume book around here somewhere..?
I'll check and see ...

Surely you jest mate? Who ever heard of chasing away drunken Germans ..? ha!

Bill

Bill,
Would enjoy seeing some of your book. Jest on!
Haa! "On second thought!"

Mikee,

Can't see to locate the 'costume book,' which was actually an old German history book ...

... I did find this one, though, "17 Deutsches
Bundes und Goldenes Jubil�ums Schiessen - Frankfurt a/Main Festzug am 14 Juli 1862-1912"

I'll let you fellas practice your German translation-skills with this first description
of the illustration:

Abt.1. Zugoberleitung, Spitzenreiter, Frankfurter Jugendwehr von 1862 (Trommlerkorps)
Zieler mit Scheiben und L�ffeln. Herold der Stadt Frankfurt a.M.

... and here's a closeup of the guy that we're interested in, the club's Pritschmeister in his harlequin/jesters outfit - Lead on oh Meister,
lead on !

W~

well we see the joker,,,where is the batman????

Bill,
Forgot about that one and have seen it before. Thanks for showing it because it's a great example of how the procession went. Another one of the Pritschmeister's job was to lead the procession. There's a lot of interesting things in this example that I really enjoy seeing. This is the morning of the Schutzenfest. A lot of times there were special arrangements made for shooting competitions just before the fest. Please jest on!

Gents,

In the same vein, Karnival-time in Germany produced it's own good share of jesters, clowns and harlequin-related themes. This fine example is a bit special to me as it comes from my father's hometown of Duisburg, circa late-twenties. A pair of jesters holding up a nicely enameled disc that reads, "The First Duisburg Carnival Club, Red-White, 1928." I'm not sure if many of our fellow collectors know that many of these civilian decorations came from some of the finest, 'medal-making' companies, like Deschler, etc? Anyway, what I'm getting at is that the quality can at times be nothing short of marvelous!

This baby comes from the collection of Baz the Munificent ...

Jest on fellas, jest on ...

W~

Bill and Mikee
I was wondering if there is any relationship between your Pritschmeister and the jester depicted on some Karnival medals, it does seem that it some cases the jester is holding a stick of some sort, I just wondered if he was one of the same persons.

Gary

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3

Gary,

Plenty of great designs and color patterns to these awards and decorations. Didn't you tell me that this particular consecutive grouping all came from the same person? Late twenties, early thirties I believe? The condition of the enamel and metallic finishes are in a fine state of preservation and generally speaking,
the entire lot presents a handsome display of civilian medals. Can you tell us the maker's marks found on some of these?

You bring up a valid point and I'm not really sure if there's any connection between the two types of jesters? Other than being a fine universal graphic that aptly depicts gaiety, fun and mischief, I don't know the true background of these two types of German harlequins? Possibly just the old European tradition carried over from the days of having a funny-man or jester, at a noble's court?

I know the Germans had their fair share of Pranksters in fairy-tales and legends, some of them actually not too funny at all. Two that immediately come to mind are Max und Moritz and that 'king of pranksters,' the famous Til Eulenspiegel. Even the great Austrian composer Johann Strauss wrote a score to commemorate our 'not-so-funny,' funny-man.

The German sense of written humor could at times be considered ghastly at best, similar to some of the original, uncut Grimm's brothers tales, where the end doesn't always turn out so rosy. For his mischievious ways Herr Eulenspiegel ended up at the end of a rope, some happy ending, eh?

I think in order to address your question properly, one would have to study the old Germanic tales and folklore. In the meantime I'll settle for the old boy just being fun to have around for some good laughs ...

I wisht Stymie was a monkey..!

Here's another of Baz' Duisburger Karnival gems.

Best to all !

Zilly Billy

To further illustrate just how famous or shall we say 'infamous,' old Til was, the well-known
SS porcelain firm of Allach even immortalized his figure in "white-gold." Should Herr Eulenspiegel have been the Pritschmeister for some shooting club, the results would have been disasterous!

Jest on Brothers, jest on!

W~

Ps a shame the old boy's finger is busticated on this fine example ...

Bill,
WOW! That�s one nice Jester, donkey ears and all! You can jest all you want!

Gary,
Sorry I haven�t answered sooner my computer has been jesting with me. I agree with Bill that the relationship and tradition between the two is associated with and comes from the Court Jester's of the Middle Ages. You mentioned a Carnival medal with a Jester holding a stick. The Court Jester of the middle Ages carried their own cheap imitation scepter which is called a Marotte or Bauble or the "fools bauble" if you will to mock and poke fun of the King's real scepter. So, that's where the tradition of the fool�s baton/scepter comes from.

Without seeing your medal I can only guess, but each region in Germany has their own Carnival or Fasching traditions. And most if not all towns and cities have a Carnival Prince with scepter and Princess. Your medal might also have something to do with the Koln tradition of the Dreigestirn (three Stars); the Carnival Prince or Seine Tollit�t, (His Craziness), the Bauer (peasant) and the Jungfrau (virgin) which by tradition has always been a man. It�s the Baur (peasant) who carries a stick called a flail. His Craziness also carries a very nice scepter with a handle. In order to get elected to any one of these honorable posts you are a person of importance and means and they have to be well off to afford what they do.

Is the Pritschmeister and Carnival Prince or �Prince of fools� one in the �same person�? Remember German Carnival as well as the German Shooting fest was celebrated during the Middle Ages so there's going to be similarities between the two. Although they both represent the fun factor and craziness of both celebrations and are similar in costume and influenced by the traditions of the Court Jester�s of the past. In my humble opinion they are not the �same person� but are as we say, guilty by association. They are different in duties, title, organization and tradition due to the different organizations they represent and are a part of. Both celebrations if you will were/are held during different seasons for a reason. Partly due to a mix of pagan and Christian believes but also because of the need for defense. I guess it�s possible that one person was a member of both organizations and held both titles, who else better suited for the jobs in my opinion. But something tells me it�s not as simple and was/is more political in nature. I hope I understood the question correctly and answered without jumping track, I do that on occasion. That�s a good question and if you have more please ask. This is getting to be quite the jest, so please jest on.