Several long lost relics of the American Revolution are making their public debut, thanks partly to a determined antique hunter’s surprise find 27 years ago as he dug through box lots at a Pennsylvania auction.
Revealed were many personal items of Gen. Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, the Prussian who trained George Washington’s Continental Army and helped establish the Society of the Cincinnati, charged with keeping the history of the Revolution.
GENERAL FRIEDRICH WILHELM VON STEUBEN’S SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI MEDAL.
The find, even more shocking than those seen on “Antiques Roadshow,” included America’s most distinguished award of the time — Baron von Steuben’s Society of the Cincinnati medal, worth $200,000 or more. It was “almost lost to history forever,” said Bill Panagopulos, president of Alexander Historical Auctions.
He is auctioning the medal, von Steuben’s cane, his family dictionary and von Steuben’s copy of the American Army’s rules and regulations drafted by the German-born general on Dec. 10 in Wilmington, Del.
Very early edition of von Steuben’s “Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States.”
How rare is the medal? It is one of 140 made by Pierre L’Enfant, who also designed the District of Columbia. This version was one of the rarest, and Panagopulos said that even the venerable Society of the Cincinnati doesn’t have one like it.
“Von Steuben was very proud of his role in the formation of the Society of the Cincinnati and the creation of this award,” he said. “One of the general’s most famous portraits, painted by Ralph Earl in about 1786, shows the proud American wearing his medal on his left lapel.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
