Description
SAXONY – DESK PIECE IN THE SHAPE OF A TSCHAKO – JÄGER zu FUß-REGIMENT CA. 1867
This is one of the most delightful, well made desk pieces we have ever offered you. It is shaped like an officer’s tschako from the 3. Jäger-Regiment zu Fuß around the time of the 1866 Austro-Prussian War.
It was the final consolidation war among the Germans, which pitted Austria, Württemberg, Bavaria, Saxony, Hannover, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, Hesse-Kassel, and etc. against Prussia, Oldenburg, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and etc. The war lasted barely seven weeks. The Prussians crushed Austria and her allies. Austria, Württemberg, Bavaria, and Saxony emerged intact, but Hannover and some of the smaller states were absorbed into Prussia. The pivotal battle of the war was at Königgrätz and took place 3 July 1866, (three years after, to the day, of the Battle of Gettysburg’s final day). The German Army unveiled a revolutionary military mobility on the European continent by their use of railroads. The Prussian Army was superbly organized and led compared to Austria and her allies. The Prussians also had use of the more modern breech loading “needle guns,” which easily outgunned the muzzle loading muskets of their enemies.
The beautiful tschako desk piece is made from a combination of leather and wood. The tschako’s exterior is covered with a superior-grade of extremely supple leather, even at more than 125-years-of-age. The tschako stands 4 1/8″ tall, is 3″ in diameter at the top, and 2 1/2″ in diameter at the base. A high-quality Saxon wappen measuring 1″ x 3/4″ graces the tschako’s front. Below the wappen are beautifully crafted chin scales showing every bit as much detail as their full-sized counterparts.
Above the wappen a well-made field badge appears. It serves as a handle that allows the tschako’s top to open, revealing an inner storage chamber for small objects. The tschako’s hinged top swings up. The tschako’s top has “3. Jäger-Regiment zu Fuß” etched into the leather. At the tschako’s bottom is “5 October Plauen 1867.” Plauen is a small town in Southern Saxony, not far from Bavaria and the modern-day Czech Republic. Probably, the officer served in the Austro-Prussian War barely eighteen months before this handsome desk piece was dedicated.
It is a wonderful miniature recreation of a tschako from the period. A lot of time and effort was expended in the construction of the piece, which sat on the desk of an officer who took great pride in his military service.
