Objekte aus königlichem & kaiserlichem Besitz

Prince Heinrich of Prussia (1862 - 1929) - a splendid silver model of his flagship “SMS Kaiser Friedrich III”, as commander of the I Squadron 1900-03 Farewell gift from the officers and officials of the I Squadron for their parting commander 1903; jeweller M. Fadderjahn, Berlin. Silver, part-gilt, ebony base. A model of the battleship on a scale of 1:100 made to the smallest detail in exceptionally fine jeweller’s quality. All superstructures, guns, and decks with intricate details such as the guns’ control elements, the rig- ging of twisted silver wire with shackles and pulleys, the anchor chains with chain links, even the taffrail made of braided silver wire. The life boats with interior oar bundles, engraved doors and portholes, movable ship screws. At stern the swaying imperial war flag, on the mast the pres- ence standard for Prince Heinrich as admiral of the imperial navy and at bow the canton of war flags. The figurehead with the bust of Kaiser Friedrich III of gilt silver, at stern the applied cyphers “W” under an imperial crown and the applied ship name on both sides of the stern. The model is mounted on four silver pawls fixed to the tall cambered ebony base. The obverse of the base featuring silver letters with the ded- ication (tr.) “For the highly esteemed squadron commander from the officers and officials of the I Squadron” and date at back “1900-1903”. Below a circumferential, deeply carved laurel wreath, the silver wreath bands engraved with the names of all ships of the I Squadron and the battleships “Kaiser Wilhelm II.”, “Wittelsbach”, “Kaiser Friedrich III.”, “Kaiser Wilhelm der Große”, “Kaiser Barbarossa”, “Kaiser Karl der Große”, “Zähringen” or “Wettin”, but also the ships of the II Squad- ron such as the battleship “Baden”, “Württemberg”, but also reconnais- sance vessels like the big and small cruisers “Prinz Heinrich”, “Viktoria Luise”, “Amazone”, “Niobe”, “Arcona” or “Blitz”, overall 32 ships of the imperial navy. On the reverse below the laurel wreath fastened with two silver nails a silver plaque engraved with the name of the jeweller “M. Fadderjahn, Berlin, S.”. Four ebony ball feet. Height of the ship (including pawls) 54.5 cm, length 125 cm, width (without the gun bar- rels) 20 cm. Height with base 67 cm, width of base 30 cm. On modern base and under glass, external dimensions 77 x 132.5 x 33 cm. The battleship “SMS Kaiser Friedrich III”, named after the father of Emperor Wilhelm II and Prince Heinrich of Prussia, was launched on 1st July 1896 as first ship of the newly developed “Kaiser Class” and was put into service on 7th October 1898. After a five-month trial period with subsequent minor alterations, it became the lead ship of the I Squadron and went into active service on 21st October 1899. After extensive alterations and a modernisation in 1908-10, it was assigned as support vessel to the Baltic Sea Naval Station and deployed with the V Squadron at the outbreak of the First World War. In 1920, it was 74 |