Thanks for the info IAN

1. Your first medal is M666 (Martin catalog) or Richter 1250 (the new Swiss Shooting medal bible, Richter catalog)

Federal Schützenfest of 1890, Frauenfeld, Thurgau
45mm

AU - 119 examples
AR - 5760 examples
BR - 4500 examples
WM - 24 examples

Engraver: Hugues Bovy, Genf

M666, Kr228, Str. 1513-1517

This is a comon medal with a market value of $25.00 to $35.00



2. Your second medal is M567 or Richter1167

Cantonal Schützenfest of 1891, Ebnat-Kappal, St. Gallen
45mm

AU - 1 example
AR - 700 examples
BR - 600 examples

Engraver: Hugues Bovy, Genf / J. Stauffacher

M567, Kr184, Str. 1314-1316

The market value for this medal is $40.00 to $60.00



3. Your third medal is a common German shooting medal with market value between $15.00 to $25.00

I needed this piece for my type collection of circulation coins, because this
shooting medal from Solothurn (3000 pieces struck) has a very similar design
compared to the contemporary circulation coin:



The rim of the Solothurn Schützentaler shows an inset lettering:
Eidgen. Freischiesen * Solothurn 1855 *
The rim of the circulation coin is corrugated.

I am loving this thread. The quality of engraving on these medals is wonderful.

Ditto on loving this thread. In fact this is how I found this forum.

Here is one of my Swiss Shooting Medals, a 1910 from Bern.



I have several others and will post photos or scans as time permits.
I own the 1892 Glarus and the 1895 Zurich that Ian posted, about the same quality too, suggesting we both bought from the same excellent Swiss seller from Winterthur.

Glad to see you found this thread. I saw you mention schuetzenmedals (or whatever they're called) in another thread somewhere and I instantly thought of a few collectors here that specialize in them.

Of course make sure you venture out into other threads!

Thanks, I fully intend to explore this forum from top to bottom. I REALLY like this place and the people here...

Another 1910 Bern, toned and in near perfect condition.

And a 1904 Zurich, Richter #1789a, 27mm with 1000 struck in silver. And a beautiful design from Huguenin.
There is also a silver plated brass version of this that I would love to stumble across one day.



Best helmet ever...

And a 1901 Luzern:



A nice big (45mm) piece of Swiss silver, and with 7000 struck, you won't spend a lifetime finding one.

Everyone has posted some very nice medals. I am very happy to see that schützenfest medals have been gaining interest in the community . If anyone has any questions or if I can help in any way please do not hesitate in asking. I've been collecting schützenfest medals for over twenty years and my Father has been collecting them for over forty.

As I get more into the Swiss Shooting Medals I find I am drawn to the engraver Holy Freres. His/Her/Their work is outstanding.

Was Holy Freres a man, woman, or group of friars as the name implies? Google has nothing.

I hope you will be able to help me.

Many years ago, I bought a small group of shooting medals.

A scan of one of them is shown below. I do not own a copy of Martin or any later works, so my remarks below are taken from my old notes about this piece.

The medal is from Bern (Langenthal) 1899. It is silver and apparently of the type of Martin-151. The bear is as shown in Martin, but the other side is not. The Swiss Miss has her hair braided differently and the names of both Munger and Homberg appear in the field (while only Homberg appears on the Martin piece) and it does not have "Bern" on it like the Martin illustration does.

I will be grateful for any information you might be able to offer. Thanks!

Hello,

Your medal is R239b (M151 variation). In the Martin book, Martin pictures the rare M151
R239c that only 5 examples were minted and in my 25 years and my Father's 40+ years of collecting, we have never seen that particular example. In the new Schützenfest Medals 'bible' by Jürg Richter the medal are identified as R239b (your's) and R239c.

R239b: 850 examples, 30mm and is relatively common in terms of shooting medals and has a market value of $40-120 dollars depending on condition.

The Martin example shown in Martin is the one that only 5 examples are known and is thought to be a proof strike but my Father and I have never seen so that can't be substantiated. Many shooting medals have proof-like surfaces but proof dies (as we know them today) were not normally used. Although there are many shooting medals that can rival today's proofs.

Variations of shooting medals are somewhat common. There are of course the same medal in different metals and there are at times variations of a medal in the same metal, such as the M151 (R239), sometimes even 4 variations and these usually in the silver examples.

I hope this helps with your question.

Rod

It does, thank you.

This medal, and the others were purchased when I was not really fully settled on my collecting direction, buying lots of different things that appealed to me, but without any coherent sense of collecting pattern.

I thought this might be a rare variety or even a pattern. I am somewhat disappointed to learn otherwise but I thank you for correcting my misunderstanding of the situation.

Nice medal nevertheless.

No one here knows anything about Holy Freres?

hiho,

I am not positive but I bellieve Holy Freres was a prolific Swiss engraver, male.

Information from obtained from Forrer:

Holy Freres (i.e. "Holy Brothers") was a firm which was established in 1893 at St. Imier in Switzerland. The brothers, Franz Holy & Jules Holy directed it. They were watch-case manufacturers & diesinkers.

They eventually branched out into medal making. Forrer lists a number of medals and it appears the firm was most active in medal making from 1903-1911 (some medals are undated and might have been produced later).

This makes perfect sense, as I have seen watches engraved by Holy Freres in addition to their shooting medals.
Thank you grivna1726 and schutzenfester for this info. I was absolutely clueless...

If anyone here has any Holy Freres medals that they wish to sell or trade away, please click on the down arrow to the right of hiho and then click on SEND MESSAGE. I definitely prefer uncleaned examples, but I'll keep an open mind if it's something I need.

Here's a new Swiss Shooting Medal I recently picked up, a 1906 Nyon........



Only 400 of these were struck.
Anyone want to try and guess how NGC graded it?

Who is the engraver?

I looked at the signature behind the woman but am having trouble making it out (A Jacob Guillamuad?).

Lovely medal!

My 1965 Krause "Swiss Shooting Talers And Medals" lists the engraver as Jacob Guillarmod.

I love the woman's flying saucer hat...

"Jacob Guillarmod" is not listed in Forrer (at least not that I can find).


The Vaud fish on her chest is a nice touch as well (the one that didn't get away!)

Next chance I get I'll take out my loupe and try and get the correct spelling of Jacob G's name.

The fish was extremely well placed, at least from a design perspective...

hiho,

As you know, you have a 1906 Vaud, Nyon Cantonal Schützenfest medal with a mintage of 400 pieces. It is 33 mm in size and is silver. Silver was the only metal this particualr medal was made in.

It is R1610 (Richter) and M964 (Martin)

The engraver is Alfred Jacot-Guillarmond of Le Locle

It's value would range (conditon range of EF to Pristine UNC) from approx. $70 - $150.00

You have a nice example of this schützenfest medal.

Thanks for the excellent information Rod, I bought this raw, NGC graded it MS64 and I completely agree.

One of these days I have to buy the Richter book, and retire my 1965 Krause. (Would you recommend the Martin instead of the Richter if you could only own one?)
Until then I'm counting on you to pop in to this thread from time to time and keep us all up to date.

And finally we know the correct spelling of Alfred Jacob-Guillarmond.

hiho,

If I could only have one reference then I would purchase the Richter set. It has more content and the pictures are in color opposed to black and white as in Martin's. If cost is a deciding factor then Martin would be the way to go. Richter is the "new bible" of schutzenfest medals and rightly so.

I thought I could post a couple of schutzenfest medals:

Exercices Arquebuse et Navigation, 1899, Geneve

Year: 1899

Metal: Silver

Size: 51mm

Quite rare with 5 pieces minted

Engraver: Hugues Bovy

1887 Federal Schützenfest in Geneve

Mintage: 39,030 (high mintage for Swiss shooting medals, making this medal relatively common) But a beautiful example of a Schützenfest medal

Metal: Silver (there was also 12 example in Gold, and 4,354 examples struck in Bronze)

Size: 45mm (the most common size for schützenfest medals although many different sizes are struck for various medals)

Engraver: H. Bovy, C. Richard, E. Lossier of Genve

Here is another medal: Cantonal shoot in Binningen, Basel 1893

Mintage: 705 examples
Metal: Silver
Size: 45mm
Engraver: Franz Homberg, Bern / Karl Jauslin, Muttenz

Here's another nice medal, it is somewhat common.

From the 1895 Federal Shoot in Canton Zurich, Winterthur

Metal: Silver

Size: 45mm

Mintage: 5,060 examples
-There were 44 examples in Gold, 3,710 examples in Bronze and even a rare Gold plated Bronze version.

Engraver: Georges Hantz, Genf / H. Wildermuth, Winterthur

I recall seeing one of those in a recent Stack's auction. So attractive and so very tempting to bid on, because it is so lovely, but then it would open up yet another collecting venue to an already stretched ADHD collection.

We picked up a few medals from the recent Stacks auction I'm happy to say. The following medal was aquired by my Dad at a recent UBS auction in Switzerland. It is a beautiful one of a kind gold medal from Frauenfeld.

1890 Federal Schützenfest Thurgau, Frauenfeld
Metal: Gold
Mintage: 1 (there are 3 silver and 3 bronze examples)
Weight: 67.3 gm
Engraver: Stefano Johnson, Milano

Very impressive!

Only 7 examples in all metals! Now THAT is rare!

Darn I have a good memory, but there were things that burned up my Stacks budget before I got to the Shooting Thalers, perhaps fortunate for you and your Dad:)

Besides, whilst the pieces are lovely, I realise I get too off focus with my collection

Scottishmoney,

You do have a good memory, the 1895 Winterthur was up for auction at the Satcks auction but the one I have pictured is from my collection and I have owned it for many years.


On a side bar; is the crawling bug just a gif? It is cool.

Thank you for the information.

According to Forrer, Eugene and Alfred Jacot-Guillarmond were watch case engravers (father & son) who resided in Le Locle.

Together, they produced a medal struck at the works of Huguenin Freres in 1888, on the inauguration of a monument at Le Locle to Daniel Jean Richard (1665-1741) who was the founder of the Neuchatel watch industry (signed E. Jacot)

Alfred also made a "Cantonal Rifle Meeting" of Vaud at Yverdon, 1899 (which sounds like another shooting medal).

I notice that this company, like Holy Freres, were watch case manufacturers. Is this generally true of the engravers of shooting medals, or just a coincidence?

Medals are the most prevalent award of Schützenfests although there were many other types of awards. Pokals and Bechers being another award. These are ornate goblets, cups and small cups.

Watches were also a popular award, although a little more rare they were prevalent thus the reason why watch case makers were also engravers of medals.
Before a schützenfest, the 'committee' would go around to local and regional shop keepers and ask for donations for the schützenfest.

These could be on the form of money, silver services, watches, clocks, rifles, wappensheibe, pottery, etc. Medals, Cups, and watches were the most common type of award for the higher prizes although many other type were given out and there were König prizes and special prizes.

Thank you for your reply.

This is a most impressive display, especially the cups which can easily stand on their own as works of art. Am I correct in thinking that the 2 cups which feature a standing bear as the stem are from Bern?

I think the cups must be particularly rare and for so many to be present, this must be a highly advanced collection. My compliments to you (I assume these are yours) on a remarkable achievement.

What is a "König" prize? A grand prize reserved for the "king" of shooting competitions?

The picture was taken two years ago when my Father and I were in Switzerland for an auction. We traveled to Bern to the Schützen Museum where I took the above photo and many more. I am lucky to have that many in my personal collection but my Father who has been collecting for over forty years has exponentially more.

The bears as the stems on the couple of cups you asked about are from Bern.

The König was the "king" of the shoot and many times was awarded some type of special award including silvered laurel wreaths.



Below is a watch we recently aquired. Extremely rare to find in such immaculate condition. Many times you can find a Schützenfest watch in great condition but this one is like new including the original case and paperwork.

Having had the time I perused through your site in your signature, and am quite thankful which practically all of the treasures on your site have been sold

I'm going to see if my local library has either (they have a pretty decent numismatic reference section) and then probably will buy the Martin reference (if I can find one) with an eye to one day acquiring the Richter set. Maybe convince my library that the Richter set should be on their buying list so I can look it over first.

Do you know where these can be purchased and about what they cost? I have had no luck finding any for sale online.

Very nice medals you posted by the way, with great detailed photos.

Fantastic medal. 67 grams of gold with a mintage of one. I cannot begin to fathom what it's worth. What a prize!
The 1929 watch is a beauty too. I have seen the medal, it's fairly common, but to see the watch (and in such amazing condition) is a real treat.

I wish I had known that Stack's had Swiss shooting medals in their last auction...

hiho,

A Richter set is not too easy to find but I can get one from the author. With the devaluation of the US dollar to the Swiss franc the set might cost including shipping in the $175-185 range

Can you help me purchase the Martin reference first while I save up for the Richter?

PLEASE...

My Father has normally had Martin books in the past but when I asked him about one for you he told me he did not have any at this time. I will look around at some of my sources and see what I can find... if I can find.

Thanks Rod, whatever you can do will be appreciated.

My Father and I are going to have an auction on our web site beginning at 7:00 PM CST, May 23 and ending at 8:00 PM CST, June 1. It will be for one schützenfest medal this time. We will try to have an auction of one to multiple schützenfest items every other Friday after this first auction and always ending the following second Sunday. Mostly medals but occasionally other schützenfest items will be auctioned.

There is more detailed information regarding the auction as well as other schützenfest related information at the web site.

If you have any interest please go to our site. A link to the site is in my signature.

Thank you.

I recently bought a few shooting medals from a dealer and since I purchased four I qualified for a quantity discount, so I picked up the new Richter set, which is quite amazing and worth every penny.

I'll list all the medals eventually but for tonight here are two of the same medal with a slight variation.
Both are Richter catalog #420, dated 1905, from Fribourg. These are silver, 33mm, with 858 struck.

The first came in the display case, and is extremely toned and never cleaned. It is signed "HOLY FRERES" on the reverse, the same as the one in the Richter catalog.



The second has very little toning, and may have been lightly cleaned at one time. This one is signed "Holy Frs", I wonder how many were produced like this?



More as I find the time.....

Nice medals hiho.

Die variations are not entirely unusual with Swiss shooting medals. There are a number of examples of medals with die variations. More than likely R420's die broke or became unusable and a second die had to be utilized and its reverse was slightly different. Again, not too unusual but having the 2 different die varieties is a plus.

And I see you got a Ricther book. I hope you enjoy the book, as you stated it is very nice and an excellant reference.

I will be interested in seeing the other 2 you procured.