24th honvéd ID photo
ID photo of a soldier from the 24th Honvéd infantry regiment, with the well-known and popular Kappenabzeichen of the regiment worn in the middle of the field cap. The badge is a Morzsányi brand, this firm prepared significantly less badge than Arkanzas or even Berger. But without exception, they are beautiful and even artistic. We can learn from a pre-printed letter envelope of the company that he called himself primarily a “decorative album maker”. The firm has won awards in London, Paris, Vienna and Budapest, as well as in Kecskemét, Szeged and Gyöngyös. The address was at 5 Eskü út in downtown Budapest, in the Klotild Palace. This is presumably the place of the store rather than the workshop. In addition to the decorative volumes, Morzsányi made various textile-metal ornaments, schlaraffia pieces. There were also a few dozen cap badges in the Great War that they prepared, including a striking number of enamels.
The 24th Honvéd badge has a simpler, cheaper design and is also in high demand among today’s collectors. I was thinking a lot about the ID picture, what purpose might it have served? People didn’t have an ID at the time, at most a passport, but I don’t think these would have been photographed either. Yet quite a few military photos were taken in ID card size.
The command of the 24th Army Infantry Regiment was in Brassó. The area around the city and the southern part of Szeklerland formed its supplementary area. II. Battalion in Csíkszereda, III. battalion was at Kézdivásárhely at home.
