MILITARY (UNIFORM) FROM THE TIME OF FREDERICK THE GREAT
Die Soldaten Friedrich’s des Grossen
Facsimiles of thirty excellent and accurately coloured plates of the uniforms of different Prussian regiments under Frederick the Great by wood engraver Eduard Kretzschmar (1807-1858) and illustrator Adolf von Menzel (1815-1905).
Upon ascending to the Prussian throne in 1740, Frederick the Great attacked and annexed the rich Austrian province of Silesia in 1742, winning military acclaim for himself and Prussia. He became an influential military theorist whose analyses emerged from his extensive personal battlefield experience and covered issues of strategy, tactics, mobility and logistics.
His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Silesian wars, his re-organisation of the Prussian Army, the First Partition of Poland, and his patronage of the arts and the Enlightenment. Frederick was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled King in Prussia, declaring himself King of Prussia after annexing Polish Prussia from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772. Prussia greatly increased its territories and became a major military power in Europe under his rule. He became known as Frederick the Great and was nicknamed “Old Fritz”.
Preussische Heer, Das, unter Friedrich Wilhelm IV
THE PRUSSIAN ARMY (UNIFORM) UNDER FREDRICH WIHELM IV
An excellent visual presentation of the Prussian Army and their uniforms under the Kaiser Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
Facsimiles of a fine series of 36 numbered contemporary hand-coloured lithographs. This is a colourful series of military costume plates with over 200 military figures in their ‘natural surroundings’: camping, in battle, on horseback, on the march, etc. Starting with the Garde du Corps in their Gala uniforms, there are plates of the Garde Cuirassier, Garde Husaren, Garde Ulanen-Regiment, Garde Dragoner, Garde Regiment zu Fuss, Garde Jäger, Blücher’sches Husaren-Regiment, Gendarmes, etc. Plate 8 shows the uniforms of the Kaiser Franz and Kaiser Alexander Grenadier-Regiment.
It contains uniforms with the alterations which were introduced under Friedrich Wilhelm IV, especially the well-known so-called ‘Pickelhaube’. The Pickelhaube was originally designed in 1842 by King Frederick William IV of Prussia, perhaps as a copy of similar helmets that were adopted at the same time by the Russian military.
Die Königl. Preussische Armee in ihrer Neuesten Uniformirung
THE ROYAL PRUSSIAN ARMY IN THEIR NEWEST UNIFORM 1855
The beautiful plates depict the various uniforms of the Prussian Army as defined by the 1855 regiment.
The work comprises of 48 facsimiles of hand-coloured tinted lithographic plates of military uniforms, each mounted within a lithographed border incorporating the crowned initials of the Prussian king. A small title strip was mounted at the bottom of each leaf identifying the plate.