Posted: Sat Sep 05, 2020 5:58 pm
Post subject: uniform and ribbon with medal, dress with brooch
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Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2020 5:29 am
Post subject: Re: uniform and ribbon with medal, dress with brooch
| starshadow wrote: |
| I just obtained some old photos of my great-great-uncle Konstanty Chalupczynski. He grew up in the area between Sierpc and Plock, and served in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5).
Can anyone identify the uniform, ribbon, or medal Konstanty is wearing? I'm also curious about the brooch his wife Katarzyna is wearing. Sorry for the picture quality. I realize the medal and brooch are almost indiscernible. Thanks. |
Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2020 3:50 pm
Post subject: Re: uniform and ribbon with medal, dress with brooch
| Sophia wrote: |
|
Thank you for posting these pictures! They are hand-colored photos, which have always interested me, and yours are particularly fascinating because you have two sets of what appear to be the same photos, colored by different artists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand-colouring_of_photographs A black and white photo was taken, and then handed off to an artist to add color to it. On a picture that I had the chance to see the back of, hand-written notes were left for the artist about the color of the man's tie, his eye color, etc. In the case of your photos, the notes may not have been very complete. If you look at Katarzyna's brooch, one artist has interpreted it as silver but the other did it as gold. Konstanty's mustache is rendered a little differently. There are other tiny differences, but the underlying photos seem to be the same (just joined together in one set, and separated in the other). The reason I am pointing this out is because it sheds a little doubt on the colors used for the ribbon of Konstanty's medal, and that is too bad because sometimes one can identify a medal by the colors of its ribbon. I also find it odd that he is wearing the medal in the center of his chest, rather than on his left side (where military ribbons usually are placed) so I wonder whether it is a non-military medal. The colorizing step is probably the reason for the lack of clarity in the medal and the brooch. You can find images of Polish military medals online. You have to look at the dates for when each initially became available; that will rule out a lot of them in regard to Konstanty's photo. Also, so many of the Polish military medals have a type of square cross shape rather than a round shape. This adds to my feeling that it is not a military medal. Perhaps he belonged to some type of Polish society? Could it be a sports medal? It might be worth checking historical newspapers to see if you can find any story about him receiving an award. Best of luck in figuring it out, Sophia P.S. I want to modify my previous comment. I think that you have two pictures here, each having both Konstanty and Katarzyna, but one of these pictures was photographed (by whoever shared them with you) to make it look like two individual pictures, while the other one was left as a picture of the couple together. Again, I conclude that these were colored by two different artists, because in one picture you have Konstanty's shoulder in front of Katarzyna, and in the other picture you have Katarzyna's shoulder in front of Konstanty. |
Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2020 6:01 am
Post subject: Re: uniform and ribbon with medal, dress with brooch
| starshadow wrote: |
| Thank you very much for your insight Sophia. I didn't know about the colorization of photos. That's fascinating. I think you're right about all three colorizations probably being based on the same original photo. I will ask my relatives if they have the original.
I'm wondering if maybe the reason Konstanty's medal doesn't look like a typical Polish medal is because he was serving in the Russian Army at the time. His home town of Mankowo Poland was in Russian annexed territory, and he fought on the Russian side of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5). He was stationed at Port Arthur on the Pacific Ocean, all the way on the other side of the Russian Empire. Could it be a Russian medal? Maybe that's why it's a different shape, and he's wearing it in the middle, not on the left. |
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