The Spekulatius Cookie Hussar

[Victrix]

That looks like a great mold and certainly seasonal! The uniform looks very 18thC and the 7 year war springs to mind. The sabre guard looks slightly Polish but may just be an artist interpretation. Noteworthy is the wig, the amount of decoration on the uniform, and what appears to be a fokos axe tucked into the boot. The latter suggest Hungarian-Croatian nationality but the item could also be a pipe (?) which could suggest that the hussar might also be Prussian? I googled Spekulatius and found the below:

[Teisani]

I would say the fokos indicates more Carpathian. So Slovakian or Transylvanian.

[Victrix]

Originally Posted by Teisani

I would say the fokos indicates more Carpathian. So Slovakian or Transylvanian.

As long as they wore wigs there in 18thC. I think further East it was common to wear a plaited tail hanging down in front of each ear and one tail in the back? Or maybe that was just the privates troopers whilst the officers wore wigs?

[awdaniec666]

Thanks for your replies. The item in questions is a pipe, not an axe (/fokos) - I wonder, are pipes pathognomonic for Prussians?

The wig in question could also be curly hair to me...

As for the Speculatius: Don´t believe everything on the internet word for word, this pastry is known, made and eaten in the entirety of Germany, not just Westphalia. It´s also known in Poland and the Czech R. for example.

[gp]

I also thought of Prussia but historically their Husars have a skull as a cockade. Like Field Marshall August von Mackensen

2. My thoughts go back to Austrian husars and the reason why:

Netherlands doesn't have a real historical tradition of sweets ( be it religious or cultural wise).

For that one has to go to Belgium, Dutch Limburg and the west to southern part of Germany and not to forget Austria.
Think also the resemblance with Aachener Print !!!

And looking at the uniform and type of sword, Baron Franz von der Trenck comes to my mind who was an officer in service of Maria Theresa of Austria/ the Habsburg Empire.
At a time when parts of Germany, the Austrian Netherlands (parts of the Netherlands and Belgium) belonged to the same empire.

Milos Crnojanski book 'migration"/ German "Panduren" describes these men coming to Brussels and Mechelen in Belgium during the War of the Austrian Succession.
August Flament, chronicle writer of Maastricht also states that Caberg, part of the town at the Belgium border, got sacked by "Croats", being actually pandurs.

Resemblance with the uniform is clear, although I think the cockade is little "artistic"freedom or fantasy by the designer of the plate/mold, as the husars in these parts where this piece of candy comes from do have either Prussian cocackes or others ( French, Spanish)

So fom the time these kind of candy were made, , coincides with having these kind of fancy Habsburgian uniforms around. And lets not forget Germany and Netherlands as we know now did not exist a couple of centuries ago one has the think in the empires of that time 16, 17th century.

[gp]

Originally Posted by gp

I also thought of Prussia but historically their Husars have a skull as a cockade. Like Field Marshall August von Mackensen

.

Apologies; forgot to attach his pics with regards to the uniform and cockade mentioned

[awdaniec666]

Just one correction GP: Only few or one hussar unit had the skull ("black hussars") which meant they won´t grant mercy upon the enemy as far as I know. It was a more or less new thing dating back not that long ago. One of those units was stationed in Danzig (Leibhusaren?) at the turn of the 19/20 th century.

Maybe the depicted hussar is some kind of Protohussar and the artist having no specific unit or person in mind.

[gp]

Originally Posted by gp

Apologies; forgot to attach his pics with regards to the uniform and cockade mentioned

just found a colorized picture of the man and his uniform and some more of the princess Viktoria Luise

[Victrix]

Originally Posted by awdaniec666

Thanks for your replies. The item in questions is a pipe, not an axe (/fokos) - I wonder, are pipes pathognomonic for Prussians?

The wig in question could also be curly hair to me...

As for the Speculatius: Don´t believe everything on the internet word for word, this pastry is known, made and eaten in the entirety of Germany, not just Westphalia. It´s also known in Poland and the Czech R. for example.

Hussars were often illustrated smoking a pipe. Maybe something they got from the Turks? In France General Lassalle declared that “a hussar that does not smoke is a bad soldier!”. They worked hard and played hard. They had a certain reputation for pleasure seeking and womanizing. Empress Maria Theresa anecdotally had hussar lovers.

The kind of rolls seen in front is typical of 18thC wigs. It’s certainly a wig.

Austro-Hungarian hussars were the most renowned in 18thC, when they were copied by the admiring Prussians. In the 19thC many other European countries created light cavalry units in Hussar style.

[awdaniec666]

Thanks for replying Victrix.

Originally Posted by Victrix

but the item could also be a pipe (?) which could suggest that the hussar might also be Prussian

I wondered if that is the case - but I doubt it to be honest.

Originally Posted by Victrix

Austro-Hungarian hussars were the most renowned in 18thC, when they were copied by the admiring Prussians.

In fact the Prussians and French did not copy them in the beginning but "imported" Hungarian hussars to begin with. With those Hungarians came the first hussar sabers into those countries which were then copied, as f.e. the Prussian Model 1742 which was then copied by Sweden as M1757 and the UK as the Model 1788. The hussar depicted here has a saber with a guard resembling other than beforementioned sabers - namely Polish sabers. I wonder if that´s a purposely detail.

[awdaniec666]

The edit option should stay available for a little longer...
The skull has been first used by the prussian hussar regiment nr. 8 (belling) in 1758.

[cel7]

Here in the Netherlands we have a long tradition of speculaas. Traditionally the image was carved in wood. I've never seen them in stone.

[gp]

Originally Posted by awdaniec666

The edit option should stay available for a little longer...
The skull has been first used by the prussian hussar regiment nr. 8 (belling) in 1758.

some more info:

https://www.kaisersbunker.com/pt/pelzmutze.htm

and 2 more pics

[werecow]

Originally Posted by gp

some more info:

https://www.kaisersbunker.com/pt/pelzmutze.htm

and 2 more pics

Reminds me of "Are we the baddies?" by Mitchell & Webb.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToKcmnrE5oY