A Jagdlappen for the German hunt, Hanau Lichtenberg county, dated 1700

Dimensions: 41,5 cm * 61,5 cm.
Linen, printed, with original cord.

One side shows the escutcheon of Johann Reinhard III, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg, a double tail lion from left to right, crown and the inscription JRCDHL (Johann Reinhard Comte de Hanau Lichtenberg).

On the back side there is a terrifying turks head. This motive was presumably chosen against the background of the Turkish invasion in Europe and the siege of Vienna back in 1683 that caused a lot of scare amoung the Christian peoples. Also the animals were supposed to be terrified and by this Jagdlappen, prevented from going below the cord and navigated to the desired direction.

The date 1700 was supposably included on the occasion of a larger feast hunting. On May 2nd 1700 Johann’s spouse, Dorothea margrave of Brandenburg Ansbach, gave birth to their first and only child, Charlotte Christine.

Johann Reinhard had his hunting grounds between Strasbourg, Pirmasens and Wörth, the so called Hanauer Land. This landscape is fairly diverse encompassing rocky hills at the southern Palatine forest and also the swampy wetlands of the unregulated Rhine. At Pirmasens the count erected a hunting seat between 1720 – 1723.

Examples of the same series
I. Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, Inv.-Nr.: 1989/1192; published at:
- Quaas, G. (2002): Hofjagd, page 14, catalogue number 140,
- DHM Magazin (1997), volume 7, number 19: Jagdwaffen aus der Sammlung des Deutschen Historischen Museums,
- Eissenhauer, M. (1992): Damit nichts durch die Lappen geht, page. 42.

II. Mainfränkisches Museum Würzburg, published at:
- Die Neuerwerbungen des Mainfränkischen Museums Würzburg 1973 – 1978, in: Mainfränkisches Jahrbuch für Geschichte und Kunst (1978), volume 30: page. 211, figure 90.
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