Fall 2026 Militaria and Aviation Auction
Lot 210:
Description
1914 Iron Cross 2nd Class pair with 25-year officer’s cross. Two 1914 Iron Crosses 2nd Class and a Prussian officer’s long-service miniature. The wearer’s cross is the standard three-piece construction-black iron core, silver frame, beaded rim-obverse crown, W and 1914, reverse oak spray, FW and 1813, on the black-and-white combatant ribbon. Beside it sits a second EK2 whose paint and core have cracked and flaked almost to the frame, the usual fate of an iron award left damp. A buttonhole bow carries a miniature Iron Cross and the gilt-centered Prussian officers’ 25-year long service cross (XX), the decoration created in 1825 for a quarter-century of commissioned service and still worn in 1914. Frederick William III founded the Iron Cross in 1813 against Napoleon; Wilhelm II reopened the same dies in August 1914. Two million 2nd Classes were issued in the Great War. The sound cross shows honest wear and a complete ribbon; the second is a relic of the same award, paint gone; miniatures original to the bow. A small Prussian group: the 1813 cross revived for 1914, and twenty-five years in the king’s coat beside it.n.
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