Gustav Adolf Scharfenberg, born in 1805, studied the trade of a goldsmith and worked for more than 13 years as an assistant in this craft, mainly doing enamel, which was quite difficult work. From 1834, G.A. Scharfenberg worked as an independent goldsmith and master of the Dresden goldsmiths' guild. When the previous supplier to the Saxon royal order chancery, the goldsmith Künzel, died in January 1849, G.A. Scharfenberg was appointed by the Saxon order chancery as supplier of all awards.
After the death of G.A. Scharfenberg, his company was passed on to his two sons, August Bruno Scharfenberg and Wilhelm Oskar Scharfenberg, and the business was continued under the name of G.A. Scharfenberg. After the death of August Bruno Scharfenberg in 1903, the family business was managed solely by Wilhelm Oskar Scharfenberg. A year later, in 1904, Gustav Bruno Georg Scharfenberg, who had previously worked as an attorney, took over the management of the company. After the death of Wilhelm Oskar Scharfenberg in 1905, Gustav Bruno Scharfenberg took over the management of the company.
The founder of the company, Gustav Adolf Scharfenberg, addressed an official letter to King Johann on July 2, 1861, in which he thanked him for the honor bestowed upon him, the trust placed in him by the Order Chancellery, entrusting him with the production of all Saxon orders. In the above-mentioned letter, Scharfenberg referred to his high training and ability in the production of domestic and foreign orders, and asked the king to grant him the honorary title of "Royal Saxon Order Maker and Court Supplier". This request was not granted in the desired form, however. Scharffenberg was given permission to use the title "Jeweler of the Royal Saxon Order Chancellery" in business relations .
The awards made by Scharffenberg, from about 1861 onwards, bore the maker's mark, namely on the order stars "Hausordens der Rautenkrone" and the Order of Albrecht: Scharffenberg Dresden (Scharffenberg Dresden).This mark was used for a short time, until about 1874, when on the chest stars made by Scharffenberg the mark became more decorated and in the form of a disc, in the middle of which was depicted the coat of arms of the Saxon kingdom with the motto "Providentiae memor", framed by the initials of the maker "GA SCHARFENBERG DRESDEN GOLDARBEITER FDKS ORDENSCANZ". This richly decorated hallmark is also present on some of the officer's crosses made by Scharfenberg. The gold crosses of the order made by Scharfenberg did not have any hallmark.
Since 1903, in the manufacture of orders, instead of gold, some other precious metals have been used. If necessary, some parts were made of gilded silver, which served as a special, distinctive feature from gold awards. Scharfenberg used a punch S (Silver), which was placed on orders, as a rule, on the edge of the lower ray, less often, to the left of the edge or to the right of the ray. On the stars of the order, the punch S was placed in addition to the manufacturer's designation on the needle. Previously, the punch S was considered to be the mark of the Scharfenberg manufacturer, in fact, this turned out to be erroneous. From a letter from the Saxon Chancellery of the Order dated June 20, 1923, it is clear that the S symbol is an abbreviation of the word "silver", and not a sign of the Scharfenberg company.
The aforementioned letter also verbatim quotes the order to transfer the remaining stocks of gold orders to a jewelry workshop for melting: "The difference in the execution of some orders is quite noticeable, due to the fact that the large S engraved on them indicates the silver content, while orders with a gold content do not contain this hallmark." At the same time, in 1911, by order of the Saxon Order Chancellery, other suppliers, along with G.A. Scharfenberg, were included in the list of official suppliers of the Saxon orders, for Scharfenberg's company this was the reason to put their own manufacturer's hallmark on the orders they manufactured. On thelarge crosses for merit of the order, the hallmark "Scharfenberg Dresden" was placed on the edge of the inner Kreuzarmes. Orders manufactured at G.A. Scharfenberg's company, as a rule, were also marked, namely, on the back side, a separate patterned label in the form of an oval. The company stamp (GA Scharffenberg Goldschmied FDKS Ordenskanzlei ) was now usually placed on the inside of the silk lining of the medal case. After 1918, the orders and badges of honor of the Scharffenberg company continued to be sold.
During the Third Reich, the Scharffenberg company was one of the leading representatives of the retail trade in orders and badges of honor. On April 17, 1936, the Saxon Minister of Economics and Labor issued an order to approve the Scharffenberg company as a company for the production of state orders and badges of honor. On October 1, 1941, an order was issued to approve the company as a company for the production of NSDAP badges. In November 1943, the LDO sent a message to all licensed retail stores, as well as to the Scharffenberg company, informing them that the LDO office had been bombed due to enemy action. Since almost all documents were destroyed due to this, the stores are calling for help in restoring the documents. For this purpose, LDO included the LDO/E card No. 1365 from Scharfenberg.
