Item Description
Original Item: One-of-a-Kind. This is a fantastic and interesting piece of Austro-Hungarian militaria from the Great War! Here we have a lovely bronze model Škoda 30.5 cm Mörser M.11, a siege howitzer / mortar produced by Škoda Works and used by the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I and later by Germany in World War II. The model is on the correct fixed emplacement mount, and it has multiple moving parts as well! It can be rotated the full 360 degrees, and the barrel and many of the components are movable as well. The barrel measures 4 5/8" long, so it is probably about 1:25 scale.
It is attached to a fantastic red marble base, which measures approximately 12" long, 4" tall, and 4 5/8" wide by itself. With the barrel at max elevation, the overall height is about 10 inches. This would be a positively fantastic desk display! It is a bit hefty, at 18.75lbs, so it would definitely not be standing desk friendly.
The rear of the marble base has a brass plaque installed, which has a very interesting inscription in German black letter typeface:
Anlässch des Besuches
im Kriegsjahr 1916
Ihrer K.K. Hoheit
Erzherzog Ferdinand
"K.K." is a Austrian / German abbreviation for Kaiserlich-Königlich, or "Imperial-Royal". Translated, this reads:
On the Occasion Of the Visit
In War Year 1916
Of His Imperial-Royal Highness
Archduke Ferdinand
Now, this leads to an interesting question: Which "Archduke Ferdinand" is the inscription referring to? It certainly isn't Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination precipitated the outbreak of the war. However the only other possibility, would have been his younger brother Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Austria, had renounced his rights to the throne, and took the name Ferdinand Burg in 1911. More importantly, he passed away in 1915 from Tuberculosis.
Our best guess would be one of the sons of Ferdinand IV, Grand Duke of Tuscany: Archduke Joseph Ferdinand (1872-1942) or Archduke Peter Ferdinand (1874-1948). Both were alive at the time and were involved in the military, but in 1916 both were without a permanent post. Their older brother, Archduke Leopold Ferdinand, had been allowed to renounce his title in 1902. As far as we can tell, there were no other members of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine alive at the time with Ferdinand in their name.
Regardless of the nebulous nature of the inscription, it is still a fantastic display piece. Ready to research and display!
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