A
portfolio c. 17 by 21 inches of luscious color prints of all Austrian Orders
and medals current during World War I. The portfolio was made and sold in 1919
to raise money for the needy war veterans in Austria. The plates include full
size prints of all variations of all medals and orders current in 1918 at the
end of the monarchy. Published prior to the attempted Habsburg coup in Hungary,
when sympathy for the family was still wide spread.
These are the most magnificent medal prints I have seen for any country. They
appear to be chromo-lithograph photos which gives them a rich coloration more
like a painting than a photo. Vienna graphic artists were famous just before
WWI and this print job is in that tradition. The paper is a modestly fragile,
acid, very smooth vellum with minor chips to the edges, but the prints can be
deacidified and will frame easily with matting.