Karl Ott. 1914.
GOTT —— MIT UNS ● (God is with us). Single-sided cast bronze, medium-brown patina, 75 mm, 65.51 g. Edge-punch C.POELLATH — SCHROBENH.. Vorzüglich (extremely fine).
A lightly-armored knight on horseback, bare-headed, hands clasped in prayer, rides to left over a multi-headed, coiling hydra stretched beneath the horse's hooves; title legend upper edge; two-line inscription A･D / 1914 center left; artist's signature K･OTT in exergue; pearled edge, raised rim.
Cf: Bernhart, Max. 1915. Kriegsmedaillen bayerischer Künstler, pl. XVII: 90.
Cf: Bernhart, Max. 1917. Die Münchener Medaillenkunst der Gegenwart, pl. 37, no. 265.
Cf: Frankenhuis, M. 1919(?). Catalogue of Medals - Medalets and Plaques Relative to the World War 1914 - 1919, p. 80: 601.
Cf: Klose, Dietrich O. A. 2016. Europas Verderben 1914 1918: Deutsche und österreichische Medaillen auf den Ersten Weltkrieg, p. 118: 9.1.A hydra representing Germany's and Austria-Hungary's multiple enemies facing a mythical or Medieval hero became a widespread trope of graphic and medallic art in 1914. On examples such as this one, the individual hydra heads are characterized by caricatured representatives of the the Allied Powers, e.g. a bear for Russia, a rooster for France, a bulldog for Britain.
