saschaw

One of my all-time favourites, at least since I found the picture of the chain in an old auction catalogue. Unbelievable this was still unsuccesfull... Grade of the Italian order as well as presence of Imperial Chinese decoration indicate he had them pre-1914... hopefully while still (sometimes) in uniform, and not "dR/dL aD" ? KO on the chain must be a KO2, if they make a pair - which I'm sure they do. So we're looking for a Prussian with unusal KO2/RAO4 combination, with additional bizzare stuff from Far East - and cannot find him?!

I'm sorry, but I have some severe doubts on this bar. The ribbons don't look like "immaculate", old silk ribbons to me - but like modern repro ribbons, as does the reverse look like a modern fabric. Not to talk about the shiny brass needle...

Just found this auction by coincidence: http://www.ebay.de/itm/181075720675 Quite a lot of Hindenburg ribbons from medal bars...

As said, they come on apparently maker marked crosses, too, which makes it quite obvious in my opinion.

But the marks on the underside of the pin are not believed to be actual maker marks but rather "additional" control marks, as they come on maker marked crosses, too.... If I were you, and if I could, I'd compare the frames to crosses by known makers. Starting with the five well-know Berlin jewellers would be promising.

I guess he got the 4th just one for having a strong neck? Never seen anything like this... wow!

Ah, yours now? Nice! Used to be mine a while ago.

I don't know it, by my best guess would be Afghanistan... close enough?

Great gallery, thanks a lot! I find it especially funny some apparently wear their Prussian orders pour le merité on the medal bars....

Lovely chain! I'm not actually from "Groß-Berlin".... well, depending on how big you define it. Still may join the game? Every time I see stuff like this, the Wrede group comes to mind. Wrede, on whom I don't have much information, was a Red Cross co-founder and a sougar industrialist. Some of his stuff (and probably more I can find now in my data mess... ) was auctioned at Zeige and at medalhouse, some years ago - maybe in 2oo8. If it is his, he doesn't wear all of his awards. A Zähringer, a Belgian life saving medal and the Hessen cross are at least missing. On the other hand, the Johanniter (only Profeßkreuz???) is confusing - and totally miss-placed. Might it be possible there used to be something else... ?

Wow!

Due to a lagged software maintenance I had to cancel my today's shop update, but I hardly can keep you on tenterhooks for two more weeks now... Werner found him anyway, so, here he is: Major im Generalstab, later Generalleutnant Richard Waenker von Dankenschweil (born 1876, died 1937).

Glad to see this one ended with you!

Found him, by coincidence... while researching a portrait photo from my upcoming update. About 24 hours left for the quiz to be revealed...

Sorry Dean, but yours is a (nonsense combination?) fake bar by one of the usual ebay suspects, hagekna41. We've talked about him many times, and the forums search will probably reveal some of the talks on his stuff. Don't see anything here that suggest a wearer copy. The cross is totally textbook, so probably from early/mid war era.

From my understanding, "Kriegsgebiet" and "Feindesland" (enemy's country) are the same here, so someone being anywhere e.g. in France or Belgium, no matter how far behind the lines, would receive it with the wreath. Still much more crosses went to those that stayed at home.

The loss of gilt is not due to wear, but to chemical reactions. The cross, including the small ring, is from a dirty zinc alloy, while the bigger ring isn't. I wonder if the Voile book will have award numbers for these. One doesn't see them often, not the ones with the oak wreath, awarded for merits in enemy's countrys.

It has lost its gold finish, that's all. Most of these were made from "Kriegsmetall" (a zinc alloy), the earlier ones real bronze gilt. Hope to have more information in autummn, when a great book on Baden awards (new edition of the "Volle") is published. It's yet announced here: http://cms.orden-der-welt.de/index.php/en/sale/reference-books/complete-stock?sea=11-4

The use of silver, even with high content, wasn't unsual, especially in WW1's first half. Silver was not war strategic, after all. Still lovely - and highly desirably!

That's a lovely patriotic brooch from early WW1 era, made from silver. The reverse reads "God bless you!".

Don't like these... don't like any of them. http://www.ebay.de/sch/Militaria-/15502/i.html?item=290918177418&pt=Militaria&hash=item43bc131a8a&_ssn=icmann124

Not sure what it is, but I doubt it's a St. Sava. Maybe rather a Sachsen-Weimar White Falcon grand cross? The Kaiser had one, and Forman had the Kaiser's, if I remember correctely.

A friend of him or one of yours? I guess I need children...

Strange. Extremely strange. Combination as is is impossible, I'd say, but the hardware looks good, so I think there are chances some awards were missing and wrongly refilled at some point. That would be something to examine in hand... the EM/NCO awards might match, when the LD1 doesn't match the bar... or the LD1 belongs there, then I have problems with AEZ and BMV5cX... Oldenburg double is more than strange, and hardly possible. Imagine someone wearing two WW1 2nd class Iron Crosses.... we'd scream!

A lot of money, yes. Not having it in hands, but knowing where it came from, I'd assume three of these five awards are fakes, leaving the 40 Euro EK2 and the 20 Euro Centenary medal.... bad deal for several hundered bucks! :D