Cologne, Germany, exhibition medal, 1875

Dentuck

At the Atlanta Expo I picked up a silver medal of the Cologne International Horticulture Exhibition.

The medal is dated 1875, and its central element is a portrait of Augusta, German Kaiserin (Empress) and Queen of Prussia. She was the wife of Kaiser Wilhelm I, and grandmother of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

The medal was designed by Friedrich Wilhelm Kullrich, who by that time was the chief medalist of the Prussian royal mint in Berlin. He was in charge of production of obverse coinage dies for Prussia, and also did work for other German states and various other nations and private causes. He had worked at the Tower Mint for several years in the early 1850s --- including briefly with William Wyon, before the latter's death in 1851. The Russian czar, Alexander II, commissioned him to help reorganize the Saint Petersburg mint in 1857.

Cologne's International Horticultural Exhibition was opened "Under the Protection of Her Majesty the Empress and Queen and Their Highnesses the Crown Prince and Princess." (In 1888 the latter would ascend to the imperial German throne and the kingship of Prussia... but only for 99 days, as Friedrich III died of throat cancer shortly into his reign.)

I was quite pleased to add this portrait medal to my collection. Unusual to see one that gives such central prominence to a female member of the royal/imperial Hohenzollern family.

Rickc300

Got any pics of it? I would like to see it...
Thanks,
Rick

Dentuck

I'll try to get some pics up asap.

-- Dennis