landsknechte

Lock it all way in a safe for a few years (it's not like this stuff depreciates over time) until most people would have forgotten about it, and then part it out bits at a time under different aliases and in different places. If it wasn't stolen "to order"...

Of course, I can see someone arguing that it must really be a fake, since it glows without a blacklight... --Chris

Is it just me, or does the person on the left look a little too much like Julia Roberts? --Chris

Are there any confirmed examples of devices being painted by the tailors that put but ribbon bars together? I have no doubt that device was painted (plating doesn't leave brush marks), and that the painting was done after the device was attached to the bar (trace amounts of silver paint on the ribbon).

My wife worked as a picture framer for over ten years, and it's amazing the odd, yet archivally-friendly, chemicals that we have buried in the closet and under the kitchen sink. Silver crap came right off, without any damage to the eagle, or smudging onto the surface of the ribbon itself.

I finally gave in, and brought the ribbon bar back to it's original state:

Some of the price differences, I would guess, would come from the relative distance of the Imperial era compared to our own. WWII is a lot more on the consciousness of the average American or European than is WWI. Count the ratio of WWII movies versus the number of WWI movies coming out over the last few years. Think of the personal connections that come from knowing WWII vets first hand, and think how few collectors running around out there have known anyone who fought in WWI. WWII is a lot more "real" and "accessible" for most people. Most people on the street can relate to WWII and have a basic understanding of it. I honestly don't think the same thing can be said for WWI any longer. Once an event recedes a certain distance away from the general social consciousness in which the collector is living, it moves into the realm of the more serious / professional historians and collectors. --Chris

*Twitch* That has to be the single most painful pun that I have come across in quite some time. Coming from me, that's saying something.

The curvature is there, but it's quite slight. Type 1 1/2?

I'm more or less a novice at "reading" the different types of uniforms. Can anyone help? --Chris

The light caught this second one a little funny. The paint is worn on the "belly" of the eagle, but not nearly so dramatically as this photo would suggest.

...and better pictures of the paint job on the Luftwaffe DA:

Finally got a better picture of the spange:

50+ ribbon bars and counting, and not a single medal bar as of yet. --Chris

Here's today's utterly random ribbon bar, winner of the "most bizarre use of a Bavarian DA ribbon" prize:

...and the reverse:

Perhaps a little on the "salty" side, but the only thing that I've got that even has enamel... --Chris

I very nearly bid on this broken CCC that was up on eBay for next to nothing. I figured it was "kinda cool" as a relic, but there was a niggling doubt in the back of my mind that I could never really shake. I passed on it. Being a ribbon bar addict, I haven't really spent much of any time studying CCCs, and would like to post these photos for the collective wisdom of the group. Was this a broken fake, or a broken real CCC? Thanks, --Chris

The two scenarios that come to mind for me: 1. The head chef in the Lippe-Detmold royal household left a little something to be desired. This particular prince knew the Heimlich maneuver. 2. "Oh, thank you for the Band-Aid your Excellency."

It's a Type-I, although you virtually need a microscope to tell.

Good point. It's been a while since I looked at an Ehrenlegion, and as such, I didn't catch the bound swords as a clue. Thanks! --Chris

This being my first bar with the EK spange on it, I haven't invested that much research time on those... What makes a "Type I"?

I've had this ribbon bar for about a year now, and a question just arose in my mind as to what the plain blue ribbon might be. I had always assumed that it was the Austrian Ehrenlegion decoration. Now, having seen plain blue ribbons on a few of the Treue dem Regiment type veteran's decorations with Marine Infantry bars, I'm wondering what the odds of it being that might be. Anyone have any thoughts? --Chris

This bar just arrived in the mail, courtesy of our very own Stogierick. Along with it, came an attribution to a Bavarian aviator named Bauer (exactly which Bauer hadn't quite been nailed down). What suprised me, once I actually got this bar in my grubby little paws is that the silver Luftwaffe DA was originally gold. If you look at the edge of the eagle, you can see that only the front was painted. No idea when it might have been painted, or for what reason, but there are traces of silver paint on the ribbon itself - suggesting that it was done after "installation". Rick Research was kind enough to poke his head out of his current research project to suggest that this might in fact be the bar of a Landespolizei officer that ended up in the Luftwaffe. Curiouser and curioser... --Chris

Ever since you got your paws on that grouping, it's piqued my curiosity... There are several possible candidates out there, but we now know that Weidinger's stuff survived to the present day. Perhaps in time, we might be able to balance out the distribution of ribbon bars at least a tiny bit more in favor of our corner of the continent. Not that I have any particularly evil plans. Of course not. 98.8% of the world's supply of MVK1XmKr bearing ribbon bars yet elude me. Mark my words, I shall have dominion! Oh. Excuse me. Was that out loud? Could they hear me? --Chris