The old ruler of the Monarchy appears on many cap badges. The Gurschner company produced the most frequent of these showing the “official” portrait of the ruler. The wearing of this cap badge was allowed as early as 1914. many pinned it to the cap until December 1916, when, after the death of Franz Joseph, it was replaced with the portrait of Karl, along with the cap rose.
The wearing photo is interesting because the corporal wears the insignia accompanied by a Christmas insignia not on his cap, but on his jacket instead of the decorations. This was a relatively rare, but not unknown custom. Obviously, whoever had an award, preferred to pin its ribbon to this place.