“I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles”

Broadstruck

Please think of the Dean Martin song as you glance at this not the Micheal Jackson version



So I haven't bought much foreign in the last few months however did recently purchase this out of Germany.



Circa 1700, White Metal, 23mm Diameter with a neat duel sided pictorial.



Research wise I could only find another example that was struck in silver that sold at auction.



The Obverse shows a cherub blowing bubbles with a saying "So Flies The World"



The Reverse shows flying hearts with a saying "We Are In Heaven"



Not sure what the beige muck is near the top of the reverse rim, but I’m pretty sure it will lift after a long soak in mineral oil.

asheland

Nice!

dadams

Not exactly sure what this is but I certainly like it. I'm thinking it may be some kind of funerary bereavement token or possibly a Jeton:



Allegorically, the cherub blowing bubbles represents the transitoriness of life - life is fleeting and fragile (like a bubble), here one minute and gone the next. The winged hearts would most likely symbolize the angelic ascent to heaven.



I'm no good at German so I leave the translation to you. All I keep thinking is: "Life is fleeting, so we'll meet in heaven", but I know that is not right.



-d

Andres

Cant find Fleucht , probably an old german word no longer in use today. Best I can do : Those bubbles evaporate in the wide world, but we go to heaven.

Bailathacl

Fleucht = Flug, perhaps?

Stork

Google translate didn't do anything with fleucht, but for 'so fleucht die' it gives 'so flees the'. The whole thing through google gives "so flees the wilt of who about in the sky". I suspect better language skills and/or context would help .

Iosephus

Fleucht on Wiktionary

Broadstruck

Beyond the old & new German language there have also always been two dialects.



There's a High German and normal German.



So for someone educated living in a larger city during that period it would have been Flug.



For someone in a rural farming community it would have been Fleucht.

brg5658

Originally posted by: Broadstruck

Beyond the old & new German language there have also always been two dialects.



There's a High German and normal German.



So for someone educated living in a larger city during that period it would have been Flug.



For someone in a rural farming community it would have been Fleucht.

There are, and have always been, FAR MORE than 2 dialects of German.



An example of the medal sold in the 2 Mar 1908 auction of the collection of Dr. Antoine-Feill in Hamburg (lot 4514). The type of metal (silver vs. white metal) is not noted in the auction description, but the item is described as a "medal or jeton", diameter 23 mm, and 4.5 grams. I'm guessing this is the same auction reference you found via Google search (?), but maybe not since it doesn't note anything about silver.



I would translate the medal legends as:



"Thus flees the world from us....but we'll (meet again) in heaven".



I only have 8 years of formal German study, but have not used it for the past 15 years, so I'm a bit rusty.

lordmarcovan

Aw, man, as if the little cherub blowing bubbles wasn't cool enough, those flying hearts really cinch it! I've never seen such a design on anything predating the 20th century! Super cool!