Description
Over the years I have tried to bring you many different types of royalty items. While I have offered many items from Kaiser Wilhelm II and other key members of German royalty, I have always had a soft place in my heart for Prinz Alfons of Bavaria. I will not task you here with his history, since it is well-chronicled elsewhere on this website. I will say that Prinz Alfons served as regimental chef to several regiments. Today we are offering a unique urkunde (award document). This document was issued to Prinz Alfons in September 1924. The document made him the honorary Ehrenpräsident (President) of the Artillerie-Vereinigung des Bezirks Dillingen. As I understand it, this was a veteran’s organization for former members of Artillerie-Regiments. I cannot stress too strongly this urkunde’s exquisite beauty. The document (actually, two documents) is housed in a sumptuous, dark-blue leather folio. The folio measures 13 1/2″ x 10 1/4.” The folio’s front is trimmed and embellished in gold. Pasted onto its center is a hand painted, full-color profile of a cannon, with its barrel elevated and ready to fire. Some shells are stacked around it. The cannon’s image is enclosed within a hand-painted border of blue and gold, embellished with blue oak and laurel leaves. Stylized “nails” decorate the four corners in Bavaria’s and Germany’s national colors. The small painting is then set within a gold-trimmed frame on the folio’s front. As one opens the folio, the two parts of the document are revealed. Each part is made of a high-quality velum. The left-hand document measures 13″ x 9 1/2.” The first thing that appears is a hand painted or a water-colored image of a watch tower within a small city. Below that, in the most beautiful calligraphy, is the first part of the award document. It has been executed in black ink. Below that in regal red is the name “S. K. H. Prinz Alfons v. Bayern.” Not only is it done in red ink, but each of the letters is painstakingly trimmed in gold. This portion of the document is dated 28 September 1924. The right-hand document displays another hand painted or water-colored image, this one of a castle in the moonlight. Beneath the picture the urkunde’s text continues in black ink. Prinz Alfons and his title of Ehrenpräsident are again listed in red ink trimmed with gold. This side of the document is dated 21 December 1924. It bears the signatures of several officials of either the group and/or the city. Finally, a black rubber stamp has been applied that shows the organization’s name. For being nearly eighty-five-years-old, the leather folio and the two documents are in amazing condition. Even if documents are not your primary interest, please take a few moments to look at the attached photos and see the quality and workmanship that went into this set.
