UBB.threads Forums Uniform & Accessories Imperial German Uniforms, Orders, and Decorations Sharp-Shooters

Gents,

Here are some classic examples of German shooting awards, courtesty of our good friend Gary Southgate, aka the Baz.

Thanks mate!

Bill

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I just keep scrolling up and down, over and over.

--dj--Joe

Bill

Many thanks for posting these for me and Joe I'm very glad you like them.
I manage to find all of these together from one source, they are for sure the best group I have found to date. It's the variety that I love in collecting shooting medals and for the most part they are still very affordable.

Cheers

Gary

Very nice indeed!

PVON

Gary,

No problem, glad to post these gems for you.

Glad you fellas like them too, these are some of the nicest examples I've seen in quite some time ...

Best regards to all!

Bill

I really appreciate having been given the opportunity to view these works of art. My thanks.

--dj--Joe

Joe,

You're more than welcome, will see about posting some more shooters in the following days ...

W~

Would appreciate seeing more.

--dj--Joe

The Prussians Are Coming ...

Joe,

The medal on the left is a good-sized affair, about 5 inches in length from the top of the "S-hook," to the bottom of the nicely rendered acorn. At the top is a very detailed,
crowned Prussian royal eagle, holding the familiar sword and scepter and having the king's monogram, "RW," or Wilhelm Rex. The intricate eagle figure is double-stamped from thin sheet silver, and the detail to the feathering and overall rendering is uniquely superb. All the original suspension links and chains are in place and original to the piece, which is always good to see. The main body of the award is a hollow, lightweight silver cross, having fleur-de-lis motifs between each of the five, segmented cross-arms. The cross-arms are each topped with decorative silver ball designs that have been cast into the main body of the medal. In the center of the award is a seperately-applied, stationary shield device that is mounted at a slightly canted angle, tilting towards its right. The shield is bordered in an elegant, simple and tasteful flowing line-decoration, that I believe was cast into the shield design and then hand-refined. "Für errungene Preise," or roughly, "for achieved prizes." The reverse is marked with an 800 silver-content and crown and then has the hand-cut inscription, "T.V. Germania Essen - Joh Querberh - 1906," or, (Türner Verein) Gymnastics Club Germania, (of the city of) Essen, Johann Querberh, 1906. I'm not quite certain about the spelling of the surname, there's a slight scratch running through the lettering and it's just enough to make things hazy. It comes with a length of modern, solid green neck-ribbon that is not original to the piece, but makes for a fairly decent replacement. :-) What's not hazy is the quality and condition of this 103 year-old Prussian-themed award.

The example on the right-hand side is a Schützen or shooting award that's approximately two and three-quarter inches in length and composed of solid rather than hollow parts. This eagle pattern is entirely different from the first eagle design that I described, it's of the solid cast variety, exhibiting even more first-class detail to the entire obverse area. (it has even more minute intracacies than the best of hand-refined Spangen for that matter) The eagle has the full royal cypher or monogram, "FRW," highlighting his central chest-area. ("Fredricus Rex Wilhelm") There's a hinge-device in good working order that joins the eagle to the solid Maltese-cross shape of the main body. Somewhat similar to a "Spanish Cross" in design, the cross is beautifully detailed and has the finest of pebbled-finishes to the center area of the cross-arms. Then there's a seperate, gilded octagonal starburst applied to both sides of the medal, which is then covered on the obverse with another round, seperate component that displays a shooting-themed depiction of a target, rifle, dagger and horn, along with some nice regimental flags. Again, all the detail is extra-fine. The reverse disc is hand-graved, "I. Ritter -1911." The term Ritter here literally means, 1st Knight, a commonly seen reference to the "shooting-king," of these Schützen-related awards. If you can believe it, this small medal weighs a lot more in-hand than it's larger Turner Verien counterpart. (even considerably more than the heaviest Iron Cross) No silver-content markings to be found on this one but the metals are all of the highest quality and may be somewhat silver-based? An outstanding example of imperial character and qualities.

For anyone that might be interested, I'll post these in the "for-sale" section after I'm finished with this post. Hopefully one of my Schützen-collecting-buddies will be able to pick them up for his/her collection. I think anyone will be well-pleased with this fine pair.

Good collecting to all !

Bill

reverse ...

Bill, nice awards. Many thanks for showing them.

--dj--Joe