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Geiss, Fanfaro Vol 1 Plate No 186

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Item #: Fanfaro-1-186
Hussar Detachment of the J. R. von Glasenapp Volunteer Dragoons, Prussia, 1761
 
Friese & Lacina, Buchholz, 1980
Price: $3.00
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A full color print of soldiers of the Hussar Detachment of the J. R. von Glasenapp Volunteer Dragoons, Prussia, 1761. It is Plate No 186 of volume 1 from the Fanfaro series of 200 military uniform prints created by Kurt Geiss and Wilhelm Stragand illustrating the uniforms of the Prussian Hussars from 1721 to 1807.

The plates were released several per month beginning in 1980. Published by Ulf-J.Friese und Uwe Lacina Editionen, they are high quality full color prints 24cm x 34cm (9½” x 10¼”) printed on heavy stock.

The condition is as shown in the product images which are photographs of the actual plate. The plate is in excellent condition. There is some glue residue along the right edge of the back where it was attached to some kind of binder at one time (see photographs).

Kurt Geiss – 1921-2007

Adapted from an article in the Saarbrucker Zeitung, Feb 19, 2012:

Where did his talent come from? Kurt Geiss had trained early. His parents lived in the corner house Mainzerstraße / Hellwigstraße in Saarbrücken where after the First World War the French military had taken up quarters in the barracks. Behind it were the St. Arnualer Wiesen - run for the horses. Little Kurt had a box seat and developed a passion for horses, uniforms, rank insignia and trained his powers of observation and his French and documentary drawing. It became his daily companion for a lifetime. Geiss wanted to become a painter, but instead he had to go to war at the age of 20. In the 60s he made another attempt at the School of Arts and Crafts in Saarbrücken. There, the teacher and artist Edgar Jené told him: "You are 100 years too late with your talent." In other words, the trend was abstract art. Figurative representations were no longer in demand.

Thus Kurt Geiss became an illustrator and leisure painter who created oil paintings for the English nobility - "The Battle of Waterloo". Geiss worked in the advertising department of the Sinn department store, where he drew advertisements. He was also engaged for the miners' calendar. When (photo-)modernism arrived, Geiss moved to the city administration, to the passport office, and at some point, his wife remembers, a publisher became aware of him through one of his horse pictures. Because miniature soldier collectors lacked the templates for painting their figures of the Prussian hussar regiments, the publishing house Friese und Lacina developed the idea for the uniform plate series "Fanfaro". The uniforms and equipment were to be presented with historical accuracy. The military historian Auguste-Wilhelm Stragand researched and described every single uniform, every button, every ornament on caps or horse blankets. Geiss then created the 195 print templates for the series. But he did not just paint the uniforms as though they were off-the-rack models, he designed lifelike scenes from the hussars’ everyday life or dramatic war scenes. "My husband only had written instructions. He didn't copy anything, but lived his way back in time," says his wife Maria-Luise. For 20 years, starting in 1978, Kurt Geiss delved deep into Frederician and Napoleonic history between 1721 and 1815 in order to create the “Fanfaro” series of plates. In 2001 at the age of 80 he was forced to retire because of disability. 

 
 

This series of plates, titled “A History of the Prussian Hussars” (“Die Geschichte der preussischen Husaren”), is commonly known as the Fanfaro series. It comprises a pictorial history of the Prussian hussars from 1721 to the end of the Napoleonic wars. This is a work of exceptional quality and historical importance. Part I consists of 200 prints covering each regiment of the hussars from 1721 up to the reorganization of the Prussian army following its catastrophic defeat at the battles of Jena-Auerstedt in 1806. Part II covers the regiments from 1807 through the triumphant victory at Waterloo in 1815. 

The illustrations are by Kurt Geiss and the research into the uniform details was done by August-Wilhelm Stragand.

The plates were originally released several per month beginning in 1980. They are meticulously researched and offer one of the most authentic picturizations of the Prussian hussars available. Published by Ulf-J.Friese und Uwe Lacina Editionen, they are high quality full color prints 24cm x 34cm (9½” x 10¼”) printed on heavy stock.