Claudius

Agreed. If I could just see the St. Anne portrait that would have been very informative as to maker. I can't image why the order is flipped, unless the obverse’s center disk fell out and the reverse's light-blue "swish-swish" lines on the back on the white porcelain looked more attractive than a hole in the center.

Hello; Last night I was among a group of non-members that was invited to a private Men’s Club for a St. Patrick Day celebration and party. I didn’t notice it on the way in through the lobby, but on the way out I paused to view one of their many wall-hanging shadow boxes full of mementoes and the organization's related bric-a-brac. One of the shadow boxes was filled with many commemorative lapel pins from the their past stretching back nearly 100 years. I believe they were collected from past members who either donated them, or died and their estate gave them back to the organization (that originally awarded them). There were all ornate, inscribed and a mildly interesting. It was then to my great surprise that in the corner I noticed, what appeared to be, the reverse side of a St. Anne Order, with swords. How did that get in there? I believe some past member died and when they combed through his belongings found it with his military service medals and other club pins and stuff. They donated it to the club and put it in their display along with a bunch of other collected pins. However this St. Anne was just a little different. The typical red enamel, but the filigree and swords were in silver (now tarnished). Not the typical gold I would expect. My question; Is a silver St. Anne a 1920s era, made for the Allies St. Anne, or is it some other variant? I have seen swords on made-for-Allies St. Annes. They appear longer, and slightly thinner than the gold Russian ones. But this was in silver, and the filigree was fully three dimensional on the reverse side. Not the typical flat on reverse side and three dimensional on the obverse. Sorry I don’t have a photo, but some of the other members were lingering in the lobby and I don’t think they would understand why I would want to photo their precious trinket. Besides, what I would really like to do is to have someone take the display down and open the case so I could look at the other side (the obverse).

If I understand, you are suggesting that the RAO and KO are with swords, because then a peacetime Royal Hoh would follow in the #4 position. While you have a sound reason to make this assertion, I have to respectfully disagree that the RAO and KO are with swords. 1) This gentleman doesn't have an 1870-71 war medal, or China, or Africa. There just isn't any pre-wwi "wartime" service that could have earn "swords". However he was in military service since 1897 (Centennial Medal) and could earn all of these peacetime awards as an officier during the peacetime. 2) If this gentleman was a stickler for precedence by wartime awards, followed by peacetime awards followed by LS, followed by German decorations, followed by non-German awards, then I would think he would have moved the Brunswick 2K cross on war ribbon up two positions. I think this gentleman was making his sentiments known; EK2, RAO and KO are all PRUSSIAN awards. The Hohenzollern is not his beloved Prussia and he puts it in #4 position. He might have even liked to put it behind his LS and Centennial medal but that would have been too irregular for his medal tailor to allow. In addressing the observation that Hoh has mounting traces for the Royal Hoh; I also noticed that all of the medals (the five that are still there) have been tied tightly downed at the öse. The other three were likely too. I would expect the top arm of the Royal Hoh to impress itself into the mounting. What is mysterious to me is how straight across (although at an angle) the impression in the ribbon is. Like an EK2 cross's arm. As you all know, the Royal Hoh has more of a rounded arm. Is there any other award that could fit here and explain the impression? I sure hope this gentleman can be identified. The identity will clearly settle the matter.

Hello Padro; It looks like who ever looted the bar, really knew what they were doing. They took the three most valuable awards in the middle and knew not to bother with the enameled Austrian one on the end. Nevertheless, I believe your thinking is correct. After the EK2, it is; RAO w/o swords, KO w/o swords, then here you are wondering if it was the Hohenzollern Order, but if it was it should be right after the EK2, right? I think is the Hohenzollern order, but a lower class, perhaps the 3rd class in silver. That might explain its position on the bar. I wonder what the regulations say on this point. I also think that this gentleman was a real, dyed-in-the-wool Prussian. He put all his Prussian awards first before the "foreign" awards of Brunswick (war ribbon) and peacetime(?) Austria. Nice bar! I hope you can restore the medals and return it to its original appearance.

Thanks. It is really an impressive, pre-wwi medal bar.

That is a really nice bar. Does anyone know what that second, last cross is? The one in front of the the Italian St. Maurice & Lazarus order.

Thank you Demir for posting this synopsis and photos. I found it very informative. Once again you are a source of great information!

And think how ironic this scene would be against the "tree huggers" -the abject terror in their eyes.

No. I can't think of anyone from the past, present or future, historical, fictional or imaginary that I would pay $90K for a sock.

Yes. The blacklight technique was an older method of detecting certain fakes. However since then, the Fakers have found ways to compensate. Currently, not all recent fakes are going to "glow" under blacklight.

Gentlemen (and ladies) there are many who consider what we collect as silly and won’t pay more for these baubles than what they can get for a similarly pretty broach at a department store. I thought the article did a good job in explaining the significance of this item in the context of the events with hardened rivals. I don’t know if you are aware, but the city of Boston and New York have a long cultural and sports rivalry going on. Their teams, the Red Sox and Yankees have vied at each other for generations. I think everyone can relate to this type of sports team rivalry. Having said that, it was a lot of money for a Red Sox’s red sock and while I may think of other silly investments, one that comes to mind is my purchase of Ericsson stock.

I can't speak for anyone else...but keep them coming!

Nice pick-up Chris. That oak leaves really help date the photo. By looking at him, he was a young guy when he fought in the F-P war.

What is really needed here, is for this piece to be compared to a known original with a known provenance. Either another private owner or a museum. As for myself -like the post-revolution Anastasia story- I want to believe.

Hello Kev; I have some buttons related to this badge. http://gmic.co.uk/index.php/topic/40088-brass-barrister-buttons/?hl=button Lawyer or Ministry of Justice to be sure. Having said that, I have to say that I don't like the quality of your badge. I could be wrong, I haven't come across a lot of these Ministry of Justice badges. What do other collectors say?

Great looking...

a multiple page report on the dates, pilots, observers, weather condtions, and what they saw

Seeflieger Abteilung -Köslin Kriegstagebuch from Juli 1916

That is a very nice group Hardinge. It looks like you have some great research here. I can see why you bought it. I like it too.

wow. I didn't notice that before. I will have to check on the orginal, but it's clear it's not in the same font. Obviously this document was pre-printed to be filled out for the winner's name, the Place awarded and the points earned. But maybe the year was left blank and typefaced in later. Interesting.

Thank you. Whoa…thank you, but I am just an amateur at this. I have no formal training. I have seen the effects of steam on wood fibers from my years of working on wood projects. Paper is filled with these wood fibers so by extension I slowly used applied this characteristic of wood fibers to my documents (but only if they needed it) @Spasm: For your MP, I would recommend it. I have done something similar. I had pages that were adhered together like epoxy. I thought nothing would get these apart and I would have to rip the paper to separate them. Fortunately, the glues they used back then were water-based, or at least water vulnerable. When I lightly hydrated the pages, the hard impacted glue areas turned back into their gooey beginnings. The pages could then be gently separated and the moistened, and now sticky glue was wiped away before they re-harden. I recommend having some clean, lint-free rags on hand to wipe up the glue. The technique for this kind of operation is to drive the steam into the affected area, but DON’T press down on the paper like I did on my document above. That will drive both steam and glue deeper into the paper and you don’t want that. It is a bit of a balance act, but steam it from both sides thoroughly. Wait a moment. Steam again. Test for possible seperation. Steam again.... Beware, this can also release all the glue you want to keep intact...Book bindings, photo attached to documents, postage stamps, etc. Good luck!