Gordon Williamson

Iron Crosses and Imperial Awards

Rad Awards and Ribbon Mounts

Assmann & Sohn, L?denscheid.

Probably the best known, and widely available in its modern reprinted edition. Only the awards/decorations/badges are shown here.

Identifying the manufacturer of certain awards (like the Juncker Knight?s Cross with its distinctive cross-hatch to the frame ribbing and the crude workmanship in the filing of the corners to make the core fit the frame) is relatively easy, but there are still a whole load out there which are unidentified and probably will never be firmly attributed to any maker.

Although many of the illustrations in these catalogues are heavily retouched, many of them give considerable assistance in identifying makers of hitherto unattributed pieces ( i.e. Schickle being the maker of the SS medals with the round vs teardrop suspension loop).

So far the best known of these catalogues is undoubtedly the Assmann catalogue though this covers their whole range and not just medals and awards, and is very early so has little wartime stuff in it.

The 50th Anniversary Steinhauer catalogue has been reprinted and contains some superb quality illustrations, though being printed prior to September 1939, there are no wartime-created items in it.

Steinhauer also produced catalogues after the outbreak of war. I have a few pages from a 1940 catalogue and having seen an different illustration of one the items with an alternative font used (Latin as opposed to Fraktur) it is clear that subsequent editions were published.

The Otto Schickle catalogue, with supplement, covers up to 1940 and shows a number of wartime pieces.

I am aware that Deumer also produced a catalogue soon after the outbreak of war but being so early it doesn?t cover anything like the full range of items they produced. I have seen the contents of this catalogue but will leave it to the person who owns the catalogue to decide if they want to add some shots of it here.

For what its worth, here are the other catalogue illustrations I am aware of. If any one else knows of any others, please add them.

Glad it found a good new home

Very nice Jan Arne. Always amazes me though that despite other makers pieces from the same period, also in zink ( i.e. Second Type E-Boat by RS, Adolf Schulz etc ) occasionally turning up in near mint perfect condition, you almost never see a Schwerin in such good condition, but almost always heavily bubbled and with much finish missing.

Not sure which of the pics on p337 you refer to but the top set were contributed by Peter Whamond of the Collectors Guild and the lower was one of a series of photos sent to me by Barry Smith I believe Barry is now a member of WAF under the screen name Feldpost.

Barry is a highly respected Document/Soldbuch collector but has unearthed some spectacular vet bring back material of all types and I have no doubt whatsoever that both Peter and Barry were fully convinced that the pieces were genuine at the time they contributed them.

Contrary to common belief, there ARE without doubt original hollow stamped U-Boat badges, the Schickle type being one. This piece was sold last week by Helmut Weitze. Note the hinge/pin set up identical to the solid Schickle type.

Anyone who has one of these and believes the stories that all hollow back U-Boat badges are fake, I'll be happy to offer you full market price for a genuine early tombak U-Boat badge for it !

Illustration from Schickle's 1941 catalogue. Note the top arm of the swastika is solid, like Mayers, but unlike Zimmermann pieces on which all four arms are cut out.

Reverse of solid Schickle piece

Here is the reverse of a B H Mayer piece.

Prinzen size Deumer with its L/11 marked box

What I didn't notice at first is that the tip of the screw post is marked. At first I thought it was some sort of incidental or accidental mark, but its too uniform and precise.

Looks like an inverted "Z" or "N". Anybody seen anything like this before?

Reverse

Just acquired this beauty thanks to Glenn.

The interesting thing is that the printers are British, and "By Appointment" to both the Kaiser, and the King of England. Two years after a British firm is printing cards to celebrate the centenary of the Iron Cross, the countries would be at war.

Just acquired this rather nice card, dated 1912.

Also the finish is too fine and smooth. This one I have posted is probably the best I have come across in over 30 years and looks great, but even here when it is looked at under magnification, you can see a certain coarseness to the finish and a little bit of corrosion to the edge of the wing.

Some of the originals had a copper coating applied first before the silvering ( in the same way as some zink cap insignia ) and keep the finish better, later ones I believe were just silvered directly over the zink as suffer much more from bubbling. Yours just looks too smooth and perfect.

What are the dimensions/weight?

Normally you should expect 76-77mm wide, and 24mm high. Thickness can vary slightly between around 2.2mm and 3mm.

Because of the slight variances in the thickness of the castings, weights can vary from around 16-17g for the thinner ones to a max of around 20-21gr.

The first one of yours is fine, but I don't have a good feeling about the second one.

OK, I have to say from this shot, I don't like so much what I see. Every original one I have seen (where the finish is intact) has had a definite "white" silver finish. This kind of "antique silver" finish with darkened areas in the recesses is common on copies, and it does have the look of plated brass to it.

Here is the same area on mine

Can you post some close up pictures of the centre part of the front of the one you think may be Tombak. This is the area where some of even the best copies are not 100% accurate.

These later one-piece Aux Cruisers often did have a dark grey finished globe, so I wouldn't be over concerned at that. You are right about the boat though. Either the finish has been removed from the boat, or the whole badge has lost its finish and gilding only reapplied to the wreath/eagle. Definitely original though.

These all look like original wartime pieces. None that I'd have any problems with.

The badge generally looks OK, but the pin set up isn't the normal one. The retaining clip also looks like a repair job. This one has the L/18 mark on the back of the badge, not the pin, but the pin is typical of what you'd find on a zink L/18 (the Tombak ones are different).

Eduardo, are you sure that one of these is Tombak ? These weren't made in Tombak, only in zink, but many many copies exist in Tombak.

Hi Gordon, there's actually some very nicely donerepops. I've seen one done on an actual silver-gilt breast star. Very tasty!

Rick,

This one has an actual original WW1 screwback EK1 as the centrepiece. The Star background is of course a copy, but genuine gold plated. Looks nice anyway, and I don't mind having a nice copy for items where you know that there is no way, not ever, never, that you'll ever get the real thing.

Just wish I could find a decent replica Imperial Grand Cross, but all I ever see are those crappy one piece castings.