The New York Sale
Auction 30 9 January 2013
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WORLD COINS. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Major-General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Baron (1730-1794). "Father of the American Army". Uniface Cast Circular Medallic Plaquette. AE, 122.53g, 103mm. Unsigned. Obv. His uniformed and bewigged bust left, hair tied en queue, and wearing the Star and Badge of the of the Order of Fidelity of Baden, FRIEDRICH WILHELM v. STEUBEN. Extremely fine, rich, dark patination. Extremely rare.
The portrait is taken from a much reproduced life drawing by Pierre Eugene du Simitiere (1737-1784), the Geneva-born artist and Freemason, who also designed the Seal of the State of New Jersey.
von Steuben was a Prussian aristocrat and military officer who served as Inspector General and Major General of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Born in Magdeburg, he was educated by the Jesuits in Breslau before joining the Prussian army in 1746. By 1761 he was aide-de-camp to Frederick the Great and the following year became one of the 13 members of the "Special Class for the Art of War". In 1764 he was appointed Chamberlain to the Duke of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and used the title Baron from 1769, the same year that he was conferred with the Order of Fidelity, an honorary knighthood, by Charles Frederick, Margrave of Baden-Durlach, later 1st Grand Duke of Baden. In 1777 he met Benjamin Franklin in Paris and was encouraged to travel to America with a letter of introduction by Franklin to George Washington. Between 1778-1783, as Inspector General he helped build-up the Continental Army, introduced bayonet training, military drills and tactics He helped with the victories at the Battles of Barren Hill (20 May 1778), Monmouth (28 June 1778) and Stony Point (16 July 1779). He wrote the "Revolutionary War Drill Manual". He aided Nathaniel Greene in the South, and (29 September 1780) sat with him at the court-martial of the British army officer Major John André. At Yorktown (28 September - 19 October 1781) he commanded one of Washington's divisions and served as his Chief of Staff. He received his discharge in 1783 and was rewarded with the somewhat modest Steuben House in Bergen County, New Jersey, originally built in 1752 by Jan Zabriskie, where he lived his final years with his homosexual companion, Captain Benjamin Walker. His memory is kept very much alive with von Steuben Day and Parade (the third Saturday of September – his birthday was the 17th); The Steuben Society of America, founded in 1919 and a statue by Albert Jaegers in Lafayette Park, Washington, DC.
Estimate: $2,500
The portrait is taken from a much reproduced life drawing by Pierre Eugene du Simitiere (1737-1784), the Geneva-born artist and Freemason, who also designed the Seal of the State of New Jersey.
von Steuben was a Prussian aristocrat and military officer who served as Inspector General and Major General of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Born in Magdeburg, he was educated by the Jesuits in Breslau before joining the Prussian army in 1746. By 1761 he was aide-de-camp to Frederick the Great and the following year became one of the 13 members of the "Special Class for the Art of War". In 1764 he was appointed Chamberlain to the Duke of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and used the title Baron from 1769, the same year that he was conferred with the Order of Fidelity, an honorary knighthood, by Charles Frederick, Margrave of Baden-Durlach, later 1st Grand Duke of Baden. In 1777 he met Benjamin Franklin in Paris and was encouraged to travel to America with a letter of introduction by Franklin to George Washington. Between 1778-1783, as Inspector General he helped build-up the Continental Army, introduced bayonet training, military drills and tactics He helped with the victories at the Battles of Barren Hill (20 May 1778), Monmouth (28 June 1778) and Stony Point (16 July 1779). He wrote the "Revolutionary War Drill Manual". He aided Nathaniel Greene in the South, and (29 September 1780) sat with him at the court-martial of the British army officer Major John André. At Yorktown (28 September - 19 October 1781) he commanded one of Washington's divisions and served as his Chief of Staff. He received his discharge in 1783 and was rewarded with the somewhat modest Steuben House in Bergen County, New Jersey, originally built in 1752 by Jan Zabriskie, where he lived his final years with his homosexual companion, Captain Benjamin Walker. His memory is kept very much alive with von Steuben Day and Parade (the third Saturday of September – his birthday was the 17th); The Steuben Society of America, founded in 1919 and a statue by Albert Jaegers in Lafayette Park, Washington, DC.
Estimate: $2,500