Austrian Red Cross
Lenght cm 26
Spread cm 52
Sticks 13 plus 2
1916
Fan in pressed cardboard with the portraits and the signatures of the commanders of the Austro-Hungarian Army on the left, at the center the emperor Francesco Giuseppe, the grand dukes. Produced in great quantity and in two different measures, the
/en/austrian_red_cross (*) is smaller and with two characters more, they were amongst the most bought objects by the Red Cross for the fund-raising, necessary to the organization of the service; I’ve been told that the most expensive was the bronze model on scale of the howitzer “Grande Bertha”. Differently to the nr 103, here there’s no distinction of the signature of the designer August Patek. The guard is made of balsa wood without the logos of the Red Cross.
Commanders
I - Marshal Svetozar Boroević von Bojna Feld
II – General Victor Karl Danko von Krasnik
III - Franz Conrad Hötzendorf
IV - Paul von Hindenburg
V - Archduke Giuseppe Ferdinando d'Asburgo Lorena, Great Duke of Toscana
VI - Archduke Friedrich Albrecht Wilhelm of Asburgo-Teschen
VII - Emperor Guglielmo II di Germania
FRANCESCO GIUSEPPE Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary
IX - Friedrich Wilhelm Victor of Prussia
X - Archduke Karl d'Austria (later Carlo I d'Austria)
XI - Archduke Eugenio Ferdinando Pio d'Asburgo-Teschen
XII - Archduke Jozsef Szalvator d'Asburgo-Toscana
XIII - Arciduca Jozsef Foherceg Giuseppe Augusto Maria d’Austria
XIV - Admiral Anton Haus
*The presence of the head of the General Staff Paul von Hindenburg puts the printing data at the end of 1916, when Hindeburg replaced Erich von Falchenhayn after the catastrophic result of the “battle of Verdun”.
I thank heartily Walter Landi for help to identify all portraits.
