GIES: WWI Zepplines in London

[Bronzemonger]

WVZ76 1915 ZEPPELINE IN LONDON, Cast bronze, 62.2mm, 51.1g. Incuse Reverse, As Cast. RRR.
Frankenhuis 1100, Kaiser 432. Provenance: Dr. S. Martin Collection>DixNoonen Auction M6, Lot 1330> Goodman Collection

Three Zeppelins on bombing mission over London with a bomb exploding on the shipping docks and a small group of people retreating to the left.

The German Expressionist had an obsession with death, the machinery of war, and, in Gies’ case, a fascination with modern weapons. For Gies though, these weapons raised a larger issue of the relation of man to machine. Many of his medals show the insignificance of man in the mechanization of war. Here Gies’ theme rests with the destructive power of the machine hovering over London destroying the city, seemingly without human intervention, by the strange cigar-shaped objects in the sky above. Do you remember the hovering alien spacecraft in the movie “Independence Day”? Same concept…but this was really happening.

Seven (7) are known to exist and are distributed as follows:

1 London Imperial War Museum
1 Munchen Staatliche Munzsammlung
1 Ramat Aviv, Kadman Numismatic Museum
1 Stuttgart Wurttembergisches Landesmuseum
1 Wein, Kunsthistorisches Museum
2 in private collections, with this example being one of those two.

[ externes Bild ]