Claudio

Last but not least: a bronze type... in heavy "chocolate" bronze; I really do love these!

Second: a marked "Silber 990" piece.

First: a "argentan" (kind of white medal and silvered) piece, in my humble opinion a end 20ies-30ies medal "Spangenst?ck" or in English a second issue medal used for a court mounted bar. Note the attachment system.

Nice bar Chris! Just to keep the ball rolling I am showing you my single pieces.

That IS disturbing! I won't even bother to ask Thies about it, because 1) he wouldn't even reply 2) Very likely I wouldn't even remember to have seen the picture and the envelope which belonged to Janzten. Too bad! Regarding Jantzen's rank I am also a bit confused; was it or not promoted to Konteradmiral? Here everybody who can research his career seems to say that there is no confirmation from the Ranklists of the Kriegsmarine. Man! I wish I had Jantzen's picture and why not also his ribbon bar! That would be great. But I won't dispair so easely. I am pretty sure, if it's out there, it might take one or 20 years, but sooner or later it will surface on the market and I hope to be around to snap it! ciao, Claudio

Dear forumites: I am preparing an inventory and trying to put in my catalogue all my medal bars. In order to do so, I would like to be sure to fill in the correct data about the above-mentioned Imperial navy officer. There were some doubts about the fact that he never became "Admiral" during WWII and according to some data that I have gathered on him, there is no mention about his eventual promotion to "Konteradmiral": Lebenslauf / Johannes Jantzen *08.07.1880 in Hamburg geboren 12.04.1898 Eintritt in die Kriegsmarine 30.03.1908 Kapit?nleutnant 17.10.1915 Korvettenkapit?n bis 07.1916 1. Offizier, SMS Berlin bis 06.1918 Navigationsoffizier, SMS Westfalen bis 07.11.1919 1. Offizier Ostfriesland, aus der KM ausgetreten 01.10.1939 Fregattenkapit?n (E) 01.08.1942 Kapit?n zur See 04.1938-09.1939 W.E.J. Schleswig-Holstein, Sachbearbeiter 09.1939-01.1941 Wehrbezirkskommando Kiel 01.1941-10.1944 Wehrbezirkskommando Hamburg-See, Kdr. ? 23.03.1945 verstorben Can you help me? Any info on him is most appreciated! Many thanks in advance!! Ciao, Claudio

Hi Heiko, Wildcard is right; I think too the Meister's spange was sold to a client on the phone. Actually bidding by phone is really not a such bad idea: I don't have to physically there, you can save on the trip and hotel and it's like to be there. So if you really desperately want a specific piece you might get it on the phone... If you place a written bid... mmmmhhh... in that case the chances to get somethingare 1 to 10 or even less. I remember that there were lots of written bids but only very few items went to people who chose to do so. @Wildcard: you know I really treasure the fact that I can spend time with other fellow collector and have a nice chat. I think this field of collecting there're lots of individualists. If people would speak more openly collectors would take advantage of sharing their knowledge, therefore less chance for the fakers to be successful, and maybe people would behave much more fairly and not bid so against eachother. At the end this is for us, or at least for me, a hobby not my business. The many dealers present at the auction also tought me that to most people is not only an hobby but a quite profitable business. Ciao, Claudio

Hi Stogie, I understand your disappointment. Sometimes Thies is very slowly to reply my emails, sometimes he never replies, like once I have asked him on Rick's (evil twin) information about the whereabouts of some pieces (Miniaturkettchen, ribbon bars, documents other decorations) belonging to a specific group that have been lost (?) during the making of his catalogues' inventory. That was very frustrating to me, especially thinking that many of these pieces are forever separated. Personally I think that Thies is a nice person, but as you can imagine, he was very busy on last Saturday and perhaps not to much concerned about "some details" we serious collectors care a lot. Ciao, Claudio

Hi everybody! It was a pleasure to have met you during the auction Wildcard. I would have loved to speak with you longer, but I had to leave early, because, first of all my budget was already completely used and secondly because I had a long way back to my home (Lugano, about 4 1/2 with the car). It was really great to see all the items before the auction started. I thought that there wasn't time enough to inspect personally all the items I was interested in, but furtunately I was wrong. It's another feeling to be on place, inspect the medals personally, tough them with my pawns and see how the quality of some enamelled orders was unparalleled. Beautfiful stuff... but unfortunately very expensive. Therefore I had to concentrate on my field of interest: medal bars! There was enough choice for every type of taste and budget, but I must say the first Seymour's collection Auction was a bit easier for me to get the medal bars I wished at "normal" prices. The problem is also the high commision (20% + 7% VAT!!!). I don't think many were concerned about this aspect, because some desirable items like Meister's spange went more than the double of the reserve/estimated price! (Meister's bar was sold for Eur 17'000.- + 27%!!!). Another bar that went up more the double of the estimated price was Wedding's medal bar. Beautiful nevertheless; I had the pleasure to have it in my own hands for about 30 seconds. It was, although there was no label on the reverse (backing), a typical Godet medal bar with an uncommon (for Godet) red fabric backing. It was very nicely put together and the metal base was highly vaulted (to follow the shape of the chest). What a spectacle; the bar was estimated Eur 2'000.- and it went for Eur 4'200.-!!! Not bad. Another NCO's Baden Colonial bar went much more than double of the starting bid! Beautiful conditions and great combination of decorations. It was better to be in a museum! I saw for the first time lots of real GOLD orders and many of them impressed me for quality of craftmanship, like a Gold Komturkreuz of the Oldenburg House Order with crown and swords or a beautiful Offizierskreuz with swords and extra light of a W?rttemberg order... I saw also lots of German dealers (Kai Winkler and Bretzendorfer for example) attending the auction, hoping to get some hot items to be resold on their online catalogues, making a nice profit. I must say they were quite disappointed at the end because almost all the items were sold at quite high prices... so no room for making a lot profit out of them. I just went for the first time to Thies auction and was surprised to see the room packed with collectors and dealers. I think Thies had quite a successful auction. I can't wait to see his next catalogue; among the pieces that have to come there is also Kaiser Wilhelm II's medal bar... I can only recommend to order the catalogue because of its beautiful colour pictures. I have seen lots of very well known German and International collectors being present at the auction. At the end our collecting community is quite small. Many people very likely know me without having introduced before. It can be nice but on the other hand it's disturbing to think that, especially nowadays, there are many criminals who know quite exactly which collector has something interesting to steal from. Therefore I prefer also to be a bit more discreet than in the past! Sorry... Ciao, Claudio

Hi Rick, I didn't think about that possibility. But if it's so, what a jerk this fellow collector. He did also put is name on the interior of the front visor.... I would never do that; if you really want to put an inventory number or label you can do it much much better. That's why I couldn't find any "Kieser" in the Leib.-Gren.-Regt. Nr. 8... Ciao, Claudio

Hi Glenn, Thanks for taking your time to check the name. Here are some scans more with the detail of the name. Ciao, Claudio

Hi Mike, Thank you for your nice words... Here another pic taken from the national cocarde side... Ciao, Claudio

another from the front...

Dear forumites, I would like to introduce to you my newest head gear acquisition: a Pickelhaube of a Reserve (Landwehr) officer serving in the Leib-Grenadier-Regiment K?nig Friedrich Wilhelm III. (1. Brandenburg.) Nr. 8, Frankfurt an der Oder. The pickelhaube shows some wear but overall has a very nice "have been there" look. In the interior there is the name Kieser. Maybe is it researchable? I tried to look in my ranklists but I wasn't successfull. I would really appreciate if someone would be able to help me to find this officer. In the meanwhile enjoy the pictures! Ciao, Claudio

Dear forumites, I know it's not an Imperial decoration, but since I am sure to get some responses on this forum, I would like to submit to your examination a red cross medal which my brother saw in a Militaria fair in Italy. Did this medal exist in this class during 1934-37 (first model, without swastika) or it's a later post WWII model (57)? Here are the pics... Thanks in advance for your most appreciated comments! Ciao, Claudio

a nice couple... with miniature! 2nd and 3rd class... The first class (Steckkreuz, needle pin) is extremely rare...

a zinky one...

another one...

Dear all, My brother has a bunch of them... here they are! This in one is in steel/iron...

Here's the 15mm Bavarian ribbons collection of my brother. Ciao, Claudio

Hi bob, Here is the medal with its ribbon... Of course on your ribbon bar it looks the light blue color looks a bit faded... Ciao, Claudio

Hi Bob, From the colors it looks like a Bavarian Long service medals. I can't distinguisth well the stripes, but if there're more (4-5) and very are very narrow it looks almost like the Feuerwehr-Dienstausz. ciao, Claudio

Rick, About Flaccus and my bar... it could be that he didn't have the patience to fill out the application in order to request the Bulgarian WWI commemorative medal or just forgot about it... Strange that it didn't get the Bulgarian Military Merit order or perhaps he didn't wear it on purpose, because he wanted just to show his German decorations... Ciao, Claudio

@Rick; no luck with the research of my w?rttemberg'sche Spange... also Daniel tried to find more about this bar, unfortunately without success. He must have been quite an old guy when he received the "Ehrenkreuz f?r Frontk?mpfer" in 1934-35... If he partecipated to the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War, at that time he should have been at least 19-20 (born around 1850), he would have been well over 80 years old when this medal bar was put together for him! During WWI he must have been quite an old guy, too! At least 63-64! Mmmmhh... Too bad! Do you know how many Landwehr units had W?rttemberg before the outbreak of WWI (1913-1914)? I could check my Ranglisten of 1913 and see if there was such a senior officer in a w?rttemberg'sche Landwehr unit in W?rttemberg. Strange also that he wasn't awarded with the EK 2. Kl. 1870; maybe he was so young that he didn't even serve too close to the front or maybe he was just a 1-Jahr-Freiwilliger or a Fahnenjunker at that time... Too bad that we can't find him! With such array of decorations... it should be possible! ciao, Claudio

@ Bob: beautiful bar! Is Weidinger's medal bar yours? Do you have more info on him? Dear all, Here's my w?rttemburg'sche Spange! ? Eisernes Kreuz 1914, 2.Klasse (OEK 1909). ? Kriegsdenkm?nze 1870/71 f?r K?mpfer mit den vier Gefechtsspangen W?rth, Sedan, Villiers und Paris (OEK 1941/4/10/13/24) ? Milit?r-Verdienstorden, Ritterkreuz 1914-1918, Chiffre "WR", Gold, (OEK 2967) ? Wilhelmskreuz mit Schwertern (OEK 3078) ? Frontk?mpferehrenkreuz (OEK 3803) ? Orden der W?rttembergischen Krone, Ritterkreuz, Gold (OEK 2938) ? Friedrichs-Orden, Ritterkreuz 1.Klasse, Gold (OEK 2980) ? Dienstehrenzeichen 1.Klasse, Kreuz f?r 25 Dienstjahre, 1891-1921 (OEK 3089) ? Silberne Erinnerungsmedaille zum 25j?hrigen Regierungsjubil?um K?nig Karls, 1889 (OEK 3014) ? Centenar-Medaille 1897 (OEK 1965)