100th Auction

2019/11/15

Lot 8

A. Lange & Söhne Glashütte B/Dresden, Movement No. 28051, Case No. 53517, 51 mm, 91 g, circa 1889
A historical interesting Glashuette hunting case pocket watch, sold on 06/25/1889 to Dürrstein & Co in Dresden for 254 Marks - with original box, Lange extract from the archives and personal statement from the curator of the foundation Deutsches Uhrenmuseum Glashütte (German watch and clock museum Glashütte). With watch chain and medal "Gold gab ich zur Wehr, Eisen nahm ich zur Ehr" (I gave gold for the country and took iron for honour).
Case: iron, gun-metal finished, gold mountings. Dial: enamel. Movm.: 3/4 plate movement, screw compensation balance.
It is a changeful story that leads us from the making of this timepiece in the 1880s to World War I – it is one of the very few watches produced by Lange & Söhne, where movement number and case number do not match. According to company records, the watch in its original gold case was made in Glashütte as number 28051 and sold to the Dürrstein company in Dresden in 1889. Around 20 years later, Lange & Söhne delivered another watch bearing the number 53517 in a iron case to the company Jaksch in Riga; the watch was returned, however, some weeks later because it was undeliverable. After another four years, in late 1914, the movement of this watch was sold to Celle – this time in a silver case.
The iron case remained in Glashütte and in 1916 - when wartime Germany was in need of resources and foreign currencies - watch number 28051 was taken from its gold case and fitted into the steel case. This is verified by the engraving on the cuvette: "Das Gold gab ich dem Vaterland" (I gave the gold to the fatherland). To reward this dedication, the Bank of Germany awarded a medal with the inscription "Gold gab ich zur Wehr, Eisen nahm ich zur Ehr" (I gave gold for the country and took iron for honour); the inscription is repeated on the watch chain, which also bears the year "1916 - In eiserner Zeit" (1916 – an iron time). The watch was formerly the property of Johannes Hermann Gustav Remy, a member of the prominent Remy industrialist family. Lieutenant commander and submarine captain Remy went missing in action in 1918 in the Mediterranean near Malaga.
A similar call for donations had been made before in the time of the Prussian kingdom. Princess Marianne of Prussia asked Prussian women to donate their gold in exchange for iron jewellery with the inscription "Gold gab ich für Eisen" (I gave gold for iron). In World War I this call for donations was repeated and from 1916 on the donations were rewarded with medals such as this one, which was designed by Hermann Hosaeus (1875 - 1958); Hosaeus was famous for his war memorials and medals.

Sold

estimated
10.00020.000 €
Price realized
10.700 €