I was inspired recently to get my hands on some of the Prince August moulds by the work of Steve Cady, fellow member of the OSW group and a masterful painter. Just today I finally have plucked up the courage to paint my first ever semi-round miniature.
I decided he would be from the Duchy of Alzheim in the 1720s or 30s, a relatively little-known period of the Duchys' past when her soldiers were still wearing the Red coat they abandoned in 1740 for the White. This change probably reflected the internal politics of the State at this time and the predominance of the "French" party over that of the "Saxon" at court.
The bold young infantry officer depicted here (from information taken from the portrait showing him at the time of the War of the Poltroonian Succession) is the Graf von Eisenessen* perhaps better known later as the Marquis de Soubre-Whelm from the title awarded him by a young Louis XV for his actions at the breach at the Seige of Protzhydenlohe. As close students of Alzenheimer history will be aware this was the one major action the men of Alzheim took part in, and this was trying enough to wear the heart out of the army. It is said that the Officers' mess bills for Champagne were enough that they took only a minor part in the better known War of the Austrian Succession.
*Not a relation of Trinksblut und Eisenessen as related by Colonel Grant (99th) in his "What a Game We Make of War" - London 1767.
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