landsknechte

I've got a 1st class, albeit one that looks like it's been run over by a Buick, but a 1st class nonetheless. :coola: An ugly rarity is still a rarity. --Chris

Yep... That's the other half of my little family there.

That's a ribbon that's managed to elude me thus far... Good find! :food-smiley-004:

It did seem like there was something of a "wave" of non-combatant EK bars floating around out there for a while, and the smaller of the two was one that I was able to scoop up during that odd period.

Dude... That wasn't mustard gas!

The softer side of Prussian militarism!

My lone WWI contribution:

...and this "M" marked EK that was at an antique shop alongside a veteran's badge from a Brunswick infantry regiment (which was unfortunately scooped up by someone else). Hard to explain really, but it has a tangible "presence" about it. Just feels like a piece of history.

I'm torn between two of mine, a high-quality Godet that's in nearly perfect condition...

I'm not much of a buckle collector either (I have a a single solitary buckle), but the one opinion that I an offer with any real certainty is that I'm looking in the wrong damn dumpsters... --Chris

Excellent find! :coola:

...and a Saxe-Ernestine medal hanging out on the ribbon bar of a very senior Bavarian NCO:

A policeman who went on to be awarded the Luftschutz decoration and the Austrian Annexation decoration a few years later. (At least I got to see a picture of the other half of the split group.)

Yikes.... Sorry about the extreme close-up there.

Major Friedrich Freiherr von Berchem, aerial observer in WWI, was awarded his HHOX in July 1918.

That may be a record for the most plain single-color ribbons on a single bar...

Non-combatant's grade of the Turkish War Medal (aka Iron Halfmoon)?

Alas, no medal bars. Plenty of Bavarian ribbon bars, but no medal bars. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride...

My only Bulgarian decoration is this St. Alexander:

Not nearly as pretty as Stogierick's example, but here's my White Falcon:

Thank you... That just made my entire day.

The most plausable theory that I've yet heard for the identity of the mysterious plain blue ribbon in last place is that it's either a peacetime Wurttemburg Friedrichsorden or a peacetime Prussian Crown order, with the ribbons arranged with all wartime decorations first, followed by all of the peacetime decorations. However, having some new faces in here, I wanted to bounce this off the collective wisdom of the group to see if anyone might be aware of any plausable (and most likely fairly obscure) foreign decorations that this could possibly be. --Chris P.S. ...and yes, it is the same blue as a FO/PCO, it's just faded.

I've posted this elsewhere, and had the suggestion made that the ribbon in last place might be a stand-in for the Spanish Civil War commemorative medal. ...any second opinons? --Chris

Well, there are a number of gaps in that parallel. The advent of a highway transportation system that actually works being one...