{"product_id":"german-silver-masonic-medal-wilhelm-augusta-prussia-silver-wedding-cased-1932","title":"German Silver Masonic Medal Wilhelm Augusta Prussia Silver Wedding Cased 1932","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe piece is a cased .990 fine silver \u003cem\u003eTischmedaille\u003c\/em\u003e (table medal) of high relief, measuring approximately 2 inches (51 millimeters) in diameter, combining a Prussian royal portrait obverse with a Masonic silver-wedding presentation reverse, struck for and presented to a Berlin lodge couple in 1932. It is an unusually layered object, drawing together royal portraiture, Masonic fraternal custom, and a private marriage commemoration in a single high-quality silver medal retained in its original fitted case.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe medal is struck in .990 fine silver, the fineness confirmed by the \u003cem\u003eSILBER 990\u003c\/em\u003e mark impressed along the lower reverse edge — a fineness higher than sterling and typical of better German presentation medals. The relief is deep and crisp on both faces, the strike clean, and the surfaces retain a soft original patina without harsh cleaning. The medal is housed in its original fitted presentation case with powder-blue lining and a silk-lined lid, the case bearing a gilt cursive monogram reading \u003cem\u003eG. N. M. L.\u003c\/em\u003e — most plausibly the abbreviation of the \u003cem\u003eGroße National-Mutterloge\u003c\/em\u003e (Grand National Mother Lodge), one of the principal Berlin Masonic governing bodies under which the issuing lodge would have worked, though the monogram reading is best confirmed in hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe obverse bears the conjoined right-facing busts of a royal couple, the man with side-whiskers in the foreground and the diademed woman behind, encircled by the legend \u003cem\u003eWILHELM KÖNIG V. PREUSSEN\u003c\/em\u003e (Wilhelm, King of Prussia) and \u003cem\u003eAUGUSTA KÖN. V. PR. G. PR. V. SACHSEN\u003c\/em\u003e (Augusta, Queen of Prussia, born Princess of Saxony). The portraits are those of Wilhelm — the future Wilhelm I, King of Prussia from 1861 and German Emperor from 1871 — and his consort Augusta, born a Princess of the Saxon ducal house of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. A small medalist's or maker's symbol appears beneath the truncation of the busts. The portrait composition is that associated with the couple's \u003cem\u003eSilberne Hochzeit\u003c\/em\u003e (silver wedding), their twenty-fifth anniversary, falling on 11 June 1854; their marriage had been celebrated on 11 June 1829. Whether the obverse die here is a historic die or a faithful later reproduction of the royal silver-wedding design cannot be determined from images alone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe reverse carries a finely modeled wreath of intertwined oak and ivy enclosing a multi-line inscription. Read out and expanded, it records: \u003cem\u003eZur Erinnerung den 11. Juni 1854\u003c\/em\u003e (In commemoration of 11 June 1854); \u003cem\u003eDie Loge \"Zur Treue\" im Orient Berlin\u003c\/em\u003e (The Lodge \"Zur Treue\" — \"To Fidelity\" — in the Orient of Berlin); \u003cem\u003edem Bruder Julius Haller und seiner Gattin Martha geb. Köhler\u003c\/em\u003e (to Brother Julius Haller and his wife Martha, née Köhler); \u003cem\u003ezur silbernen Hochzeit den 9. April 1932\u003c\/em\u003e (on the silver wedding, 9 April 1932). The terms are explicitly Masonic — \u003cem\u003eBruder\u003c\/em\u003e (Brother) and \u003cem\u003eim Orient\u003c\/em\u003e (in the Orient, the Masonic designation for a lodge's home city) — identifying the piece as a fraternal presentation from the Berlin lodge \"Zur Treue\" to one of its members and his wife on their own twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe design carries a deliberate and rather elegant double meaning. The lodge bore the name \u003cem\u003eZur Treue\u003c\/em\u003e, \"To Fidelity,\" and the medal pairs that fraternal motto of faithfulness with the most celebrated model of marital fidelity available to a nineteenth-century German audience: the long union of Wilhelm and Augusta, whose own silver wedding of 1854 is invoked at the head of the reverse. The royal couple thus stands as the archetype of the faithful marriage that the lodge wished to honor in the Haller silver wedding of 1932. The piece also carries a quiet historical poignancy, having been made in the final period of organized German Freemasonry, shortly before the lodges were suppressed under the National Socialist government that came to power the following year.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eCondition is very good. Both faces are sharp and fully legible, with deep relief preserved in the portraits, the wreath, and the inscriptions. The silver retains an even, unpolished patina with light handling marks consistent with careful retention. The fitted case is intact and presentable, with the expected light external wear and the gilt monogram still clearly legible, and the medal seats correctly in its bed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe collector appeal of the piece spans several distinct markets. It draws collectors of German states and Prussian royal portrait medals through the Wilhelm and Augusta obverse; collectors of Masonic and fraternal material through the named Berlin lodge, the \u003cem\u003eBruder\u003c\/em\u003e dedication, and the probable Grand Lodge case monogram; and collectors of named and dated silver presentation pieces through the fully identified recipients and date. The combination of high-relief .990 silver, original fitted case, royal portraiture, explicit Masonic provenance, and a precise 1932 dating in the last years of German Freemasonry makes this a substantially more interesting object than the common run of anonymous silver-wedding medals, which were frequently produced from royal-portrait templates without individual attribution.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Derrittmeister Militaria Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49587544785135,"sku":"27-22","price":195.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/9169\/5855\/files\/27-22_4.jpg?v=1779826927","url":"https:\/\/derrittmeister.com\/products\/german-silver-masonic-medal-wilhelm-augusta-prussia-silver-wedding-cased-1932","provider":"Derrittmeister Militaria Group","version":"1.0","type":"link"}