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As already mentioned in
other reports, the sword decorations are always the rare
ones among German Imperial orders. Especially the
smaller German countries were quite scroogy giving out
those awards for bravery.
The "Fürstlich Lippische
Ehrenkreuz" Lippe Honor Cross was founded October 25,
1869 for both lines of the house of Lippe in three
grades. Those pieces show the cipher
"LA" for Leopold Adolph.
In 1887 the swords
for war merit were added to the order.
Due to the separation of the
house of Lippe lines the order experienced a change and
existed from then on in 2 different designs. Actually
the reverse of the order decorations just showed the now
actual counts initials as:
During World War I only 25
decorations of the 3rd class with swords were awarded.
The earlier pieces were made from real gold and had
silver gilt swords attached (1914 - 1915). The piece
pictured here is an example of the later period (1916 -
18)made completely of gilt:
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averse |
reverse |
Even the 4th class with
swords has to be counted to these rare WWI
decorations:
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