Erzsébet (Elisabeth) von Esseö. 1916.
∙KOM∙S∙M∙S∙MOEWE∙GRAF∙DOHNA∙SCHLODIEN∙ (Count Nikolaus zu Dohna-Schlodien, Commander of His Majesty's Ship Moewe [Gull]). Cast iron, blackened, 83 mm, 146.6 g. Vorzüglich (extremely fine). Rare.
Obverse: Three-quarter profile portrait in uniform cap to right, title legend upper edge; artist's monogram, encircled ligatured ƎE lower right.
Reverse: Eyed and winged ship on waves to left, smoke trailing to right, flag flying to left (!); two six-pointed stars in sky; artist's monogram lower left; legend ∙ANNO∙D∙MCMXVI∙ (AD 1916) lower edge.
Cf: Schulman. 1919. La Guerre Européenne, Catalogue LXXV, p. 97: 890, pl. XX (bronze example).
Cf: Huszár, Lajos, and Béla Procopius. 1932. Medaillen- und Plakettenkunst in Ungarn, p. 200: 1930 (examples in iron and Kriegsmetall).
Second example: Cast bronze, 86 mm, 207.3 g; vorzüglich (extra-fine). Rare.
Obverse: similar to example above, but portrait more in direct profile to right; artist's monogram center left.
Reverse: as above.
Of these two examples, the bronze is the finer cast, exhibiting much greater detail. Aside from size, there are also subtle differences in obverse images: iron example has portrait turned slightly more to left (compare, for example, position of subject's ear in relation to back of head); artist's monogram appears below chin of iron portrait, but behind head on bronze.
Count Dohna-Schlodien was the commander of the very successful commerce raider
Moeve and is commemorated on a number of German First World War medals.
