Saturday, November 07, 2009
Help Identify This Uniform
And a closeup of the medals
A request for help from the readers:
Hello
I have a picture of our Great Grandfather in Uniform and I have been trying to find out what battle it was from. I don’t know if you can help or not. He was from Essen Germany born 1845. I am thinking a time frame from 1862 to 1873. One battle I was looking at was Hradec Kralove but can’t get a good look at the uniform. Your help would be most appreciated.
Does anyone have any information that can be gleaned from the uniform in the photo above? It’ll obviously be impossible to tell which battle, but perhaps we can narrow it down to a war.
Please leave any insights in the comments. The comments won’t appear immediately, since I have comment moderation turned on to stop the spammers. Thanks!
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
North American Stonehenge?
A professor at Northwestern Michigan College has discovered what appears to be a site of Stonehenge-like standing stones 40 feet under Lake Michigan. One seems to have been decorated with the carving of a mastodon
More on the Lake Michigan Standing Stones.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Jackson Michigan Civil War Muster
On Saturday (August 23, 2008), we took a trip to Jackson, Michigan, to attend their 24th annual Civil War Muster. Held on the grounds of Cascade Park, it’s the largest and longest-running Civil War event in the Midwest.
This year, the muster featured a recreation of the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, the original of which took place in Missouri on August 10, 1861. In addition to the battle re-creation, there also were infantry, artillery and cavalry drill demonstrations and a large encampment area where participants were more than willing (sometimes too willing) to tell you about life in the Civil War.
Later that night, the Muster featured period dance instruction, a military ball and a night fire artillery demonstration.
In addition to the camps and battle, there were a dozen or so large tents selling everything you would need to get started in Civil War re-enacting: muskets, uniforms, hats, boots, accessories and so on. Some of the tents also carried framed art (Mort Kunstler was everywhere), books, and Civil War DVDs. And there was, of course, food and drink. The boys each got a root beer in a pseudo-period blue glass jug with a cork-and-wire spring top.
You can see photos of the camp and battle here.
Thursday, March 06, 2008
German NK-101 Minenraumer rolling mine exploder
The Hemmings Auto Blogs have a post on a wonderful Wierd World War II vehicle: the Minenraumer, which apparently is kept in a Russian museum.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Ancient Roman Superglue
With a strange sort of serendipity, just as I’m using superglue to attach the shields to a bunch of roman legionnaire miniatures, I see this article about how actual Romans used a superglue to attach bits to their helmets ... and it’s lasted for thousands of years:
Dec. 14, 2007—Roman warriors repaired their battle accessories with a superglue that is still sticking around after 2,000 years, according to new findings on display at the Rheinischen Landes Museum in Bonn, Germany.
Running until Feb. 16, 2008, the exhibition “Behind the Silver Mask” presents evidence that the ancient adhesive was used to mount silver laurel leaves on legionnaires’ battle helmets.
Read more here.
Friday, December 07, 2007
Ancient Sculpture Brings Record Haul
An ancient Mesopotamian sculpture of a lioness (above) has sold at auction for a record $57 million dollars.
I think its a beautiful piece of work, and the top of the sculpture at least, would look good in one of those Wargods of Aegyptus armies. The article is below:
NEW YORK (AFP) - A tiny and extremely rare 5,000-year-old white limestone sculpture from ancient Mesopotamia sold for 57.2 million dollars in New York on Wednesday, smashing records for both sculpture and antiquities.
The carved Guennol Lioness, measuring just over eight centimeters (3 1/4 inches) tall, was described by Sotheby’s auction house as one of the last known masterworks from the dawn of civilization remaining in private hands.
“It was an honor for us to handle The Guennol Lioness, one of the greatest works of art of all time,” Richard Keresey and Florent Heintz, the experts in charge of the sale, said in a joint statement.
“Before the sale, a great connoisseur of art commented to us that he always regarded the figure as the ‘finest sculpture on earth’ and it would appear that the market agreed with him,” they said.
Five different bidders, three on the telephone and two in the room, competed for the sculpture. The successful buyer was identified only as an English buyer who wished to remain anonymous.
The sale easily broke the previous record for the highest price for a sculpture at auction, which had stood at 29.1 million dollars and was set just last month at Sotheby’s in New York by Picasso’s “Tete de Femme (Dora Maar).”
It also beat the 28.6 million dollars paid for “Artemis and the Stag,” a 2,000-year-old bronze figure which sold also at Sotheby’s in New York in June and held the record for the most expensive antiquity to be sold at auction.
Described by Sotheby’s as diminutive in size, but monumental in conception, The Guennol Lioness was created around 5,000 years ago—around the same time as the first known use of the wheel—in the region of ancient Mesopotamia.
The piece was acquired by private collector Alastair Bradley Martin in 1948 and has been on display in New York’s Brooklyn Museum of Art ever since.
Keresey described the work before the sale as “one of the oldest, rarest and most beautiful works of art from the ancient world.”
“This storied figure, in its brilliant combination of an animal form and human pose, has captured the imagination of academics and the public since it was acquired by the Martins in the late 1940s,” he added.
The figure depicts a standing lioness looking over her left shoulder, her paws clenched in front of her muscular chest.
Experts have speculated that the figure may have played a role in some ancient belief system or mythology in Mesopotamia, which today lies in parts of modern day Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran.
The proceeds of the auction are to go to a charitable trust formed by the Martin Family.
I hope that the high price of the auction doesn’t encourage even more looting of ancient archaeological sites.
