Who’d possibly want a matched set of tin figures staging a Biedermeier-era Mensur?
Err… yes, who indeed. Possibly the same kind of person who has a sextett of Spelter and bronze fencing figurines staring at his desk?
This one we haven’t acquired—yet. But would accept it from our Leibbursch any time.
Y
ou can’t open a book dealing with the 19th-century Mensur without running across a version of the image. Variously placed at Heidelberg or Göttingen, the Prestel 1808 watercolor of a Mensur is one of the best-known illustrations depicting the use of the narrow-hilted Hieber.
(Baldick identifies a knock-off of the image as a “double duel”—as if that were indeed possible of commentgemäß.)
Offered by Zinnfiguren Wilken in Berlin, the “Göttingen Mensur 1808″ set (order # 63180.ZM.001) costs 60 Euros—and gets you 2 fencers, 2 seconds, a motley crew of spectators, a chair, and a sparsely loaded bookshelf.
How can you resist?
