Description
This is a very handsome, well preserved Saxon army officer’s promotion patent from König Johann of Saxony’s (1801-1873) reign. Johann’s reign extended from 1854 to 1873, and included some of the Saxon Army’s most important wars and events. Saxony participated in the 1864 Prussian-Danish War and, what is more important, fought against Prussia in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War. The latter war essentially completed Germany’s unification under Prussia’s influence. The 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War further consolidated Prussia’s dominance when its König Wilhelm I was crowned and acknowledged as Germany’s first Kaiser at its conclusion. [Saxony was more fortunate than Austria’s other defeated 1866 war allies. She did not lose territory or become absorbed into Prussia as did such hapless states as Hannover]. The document, which measures 12 3/4″ x 8 1/4,” unfolds to measure 12 3/4″ x 16 1/4.” The promotion patent’s subject was named Martin von Dieskau. He was promoted from the rank of Leutnant to Oberleutnant. The second page boasts an embossed paper seal bearing the Kingdom of Saxony’s Coat-of-Arms. The document is dated 21 August 1864 and is signed by König Johann and Bernhard von Rabenhorst, Saxony’s War Minister from 1849 to 1866. (He was also a general in the Saxon Army. No doubt he left office after the 1866 War with Prussia). The document is in very good condition for being nearly one-hundred-fifty years-old. It has been folded in thirds both vertically and horizontally. A one-inch tear appears at the bottom of one fold.
