Tricks Of The Dark 01

This surprsingly over-decorated WW1 NCO unfortunately does not have his portrait finished in the usual strange spectrum-shifting chemicals that throw off accurate award identifications in many WW1-era and earlier black and white photos.

His ribbons are simply TOO DARK.

From the LAST ribbon, we can assume that he was a SAXON. The weird EK2 min that Saxons seem to have been obsessed with (in 2nd place) is additional support for that.

But what the heck is an NCO from Saxony wearing ahead of the EK2 ribbon with what appears to be the same colors and without swords?

And the 3rd ribbon WITH swords (Maybe a Saxe Ernestine House Order Medal?)

And the 4th ribbon which likewise appears one dark, solid mass only with a tiny white stripe at each eadge.


The 5th ribbon is clearly the combatant ribbon of Saxe-Meiningen's War Honor Medal.


But three out of six ribbons can NOT be identified. Even my crafty old trick of viewing such images in NEGATIVE to pick out subtle stripes does not work. There do not appear to BE any.

Success is sweet and failure is bitter.


Ashes, ashes.


Courtesy of Ulsterman.