Farkas

Hello Gents,

Everyone likes pictures yeah?

I do. I like all sorts. Rppc, CDV, postcards.

But particularly those used as 

Feldepost with all the details the backs carry : names , dates, units , addresses and if I could actually read German, a lot more 🤨 

I’ve posted a lot of these front & back in detail a few years back, so for now, this is just about the fronts.

I’ve got this shoe box just for AustroHungarian cards…

 I’m gonna work through the box and post a few at a time here, just for us to enjoy 🙃

Cheers

tony

Thanks Graf 

Well Gents, it took a bit of time and a dose of good fortune…

They are from a bicorn.

It explains the small size.

Fortunately I hadn’t unpicked one yet.

I haven’t identified them precisely yet, the closest match was a Royal Navy Bicorn but in position they are hard to see.

I also believe the ‘red facing’ is relevant.

tony

Cheers for the link Terry, that was really helpful and theirs matches mine to a tee.

Since this one I’ve picked up a few more from the same place, all I could in fact, and several of those were on the same link.

Everything matches and cross references accurately with other sources.

A refreshing change!!

tony

Hi Gents,

the good news is although the swords are not the correct design, they are the original ones belonging to this ribbon at least…

The ribbon has been reversed previously likely due to the fading and the swords are clearly outlined in both positions of wear.

In this picture it shows they were worn pointing down 👇 

In this one they are pointing up 👇

Maybe the different ways are unintentional but if intended is it possibly the reason for changing the ribbon round?

Although the swords are not the usual wider design they match those seen used elsewhere… 👇

So I’ve decided to arrange them like this for the time being, pointing up on the more faded position 

 

I think it’s a suitable filling for the box 👇.

tony

PS.  As usual, I’ve got carried away while looking at a new field of interest.

I’ve got 6 more since this one 🤷‍♂️
& Now I guess I need more boxes 😊

I’ll post some pictures of them shortly but in the meantime

I guess 3 are common but nice examples 

2 are better but have issues to address 

& 1 is hopefully a nice find 🤞I like it.

tony

PS it is 
‘Heiterwang’

Welcome Preemxx,

You’re in the right place.

This is indeed the section on GMIC for all things Austro Hungarian…

We are a bit low in numbers in this section but hopefully we’ll help you add to what you know about your Grandfathers service.

May I suggest you turn on notifications so you get an email if someone replies, it won’t be always be an overnight answer so stick with it.

I too had a Grandfather that served in the AH army, I know there is information to be found if you stick with it, maybe about the unit & maybe specifically about your GF if you’re lucky 🤞 There is more to find if you speak German, which I don’t sadly, but with his unit identified you can find out when and where they were at least.

——-

The picture is a beauty!

——-

And yes… Please post the other pictures you have, front and also the backs especially if annotated or marked, & particularly the writing you mention.

Also do you know any details about your GFather?

Name or Date of Birth?

& importantly his ‘place of birth’ if you know it or can find it out.
The Austro Hungarian Army recruited locally, so the answer to your initial question ‘which unit was he in’ may be as simple as that to answer, 🤞

For example - My GFather was born in Zalaegerszeg, Hungary so was in Infanterie regiment 83 (IR83), the local regiment with a garrison there.

——-

We look forward to seeing the pictures and hearing what you know. There’s no time pressure from us, whenever you are ready, you’ve taken the first step, stick with it…

Best wishes

tony

18 hours ago, Terry37 said:

I think yours truly has more history than any of mine ever will!!!

ah but Terry, remember yours have made it all the way from good ol’ blighty to the great state of Tennessee, USA… so they’ve definitely got a story to tell too!

I’m glad to hear a Welsh Guards tunic has a place in your collection, I don’t need much encouragement to show pictures of the ones in mine…

2 Grenadier Guards

2 Scots Guards

1 Honourable Artillery Company

1 Irish Guards

5 Welsh Guards (well, I am Welsh after all)

& 

1 Life Guards for good measure.

tony

🍻

It’s been suggested to me that this is possibly a Victorian regimental band tunic, apparently there were still dozens wearing ceremonial uniforms post the 1881 uniform regulation change which makes sense of the post 1881 buttons…

I’ve spent a while over the last year trying to find this one. The colours and style definitely seem Scottish, there is also the possibility this is colonial, maybe Canadian. Colonial might explain the use of this style tunic post 1881.

But right now, I’m going for… a Scottish Regimental Band.

I bought this 👇 at the same time, possibly Scot’s Guards but now I think it is more likely The Cameronians…

Maybe this tunic is related 🤷‍♂️.

On 31/05/2022 at 03:17, Farkas said:

Hello gents

 

i’ve got this pipers doublet...

 

 

 

Its not as dark as it looks in my pictures.

 

 

The buttons have the curved sides which i believe are Scots Guards.

I’m hoping that is the case (?).

 

 

if so can anyone help me date it?

 

Cheers

tony

 

Detachable shoulder.

 

Front pocket.

 

Rear shows wear from belt i think.

tony

I’ve just picked up an old buttons book and the only diamond shaped button is a pipers button of ‘The Cameronians’/‘Scottish Rifles’.

The one illustrated had straight edges whereas mine has curved edges.

I’m more inclined to accept this source than the other I saw previously describing it as ‘Scots Guards’.

tony

Hi Gents,

I picked up these not long ago.

Believed to be British and probably Victorian but not identified…

Literally until 5 minutes ago I thought they were weirdly small with the tassels on top of the shoulder not hanging down…

I’ve just realised the tassels are actually folded up and tacked in place with what appears to be period gold thread.,.

There is more to them hidden underneath

They are quite small in width and length…

Nice little things though..,

2 Questions…

‘does anyone know what they are?’

&

‘If no one recognises them, would it be okay to unpick one of them to see what it looks like?’

Any thoughts welcome as always 👍

cheers

tony

Hi Graf,

I literally knew nothing about these until I read this thread tonight. I now know enough to prove just how little I know!
But…

I wanted to see what possible connection between the ‘Sebastopol’ bar and your LOH there could be.

& I’m ever optimistic so here I go!

In 1856 the French agreed to the British issuing Crimea medals to 93,000 French involved in the campaign.

The medals and bars, delivered separately, did not get successfully. 
👇 Medals without bars

          = bars without medals.

As these bars/clasps were in France, are known to have been loose and separate from the British medals in large numbers, I think that explains where it came from.

I’m a cocky twat, I’d love to prove against the odds that the cross is from the mid 1800’s! 🙃

But I can’t work out which type LOH it is you have to date it, which obviously matters.

Using the circled reference points I compared it to this chart of the different types…

None of them matched yours using this and then I then found other images that were Inconsistent with the above so thought best to stop for now and ask you which it is…

Even if there is 50years between them I’d still rather believe they’ve spent 150+ years together in a drawer or tin together…

tony

Hi Gents,

I picked this up a little while ago.

The remaining buttons are those of the WRAC (Womens Royal Army Corp) which existed between 1949 & 1992.

I really didn’t know what to make of it at the time, I was pretty sure it wasn’t a WRAC tunic but I didn’t recognise it as anyone else’s uniform either. I thought maybe one of the Horse Guards because of the collar. My confusion was not helped by the stamp below which, because of the buttons, I read as ‘RWC’

There are a number of stamps.

You’ll notice the buttons are outside (& sown) over the button holes and there is a Velcro strip instead to fasten it… must be a woman’s touch but surely not regulation? 👇

I was pretty much stumped until I hung it up the other day to take photos for here.

I found a date inside one of the sleeves…

It seems it actually dates from  5.11.39

Now I knew it predated the WRAC I looked more widely for a match and found it 👇

It is a tunic as worn by…

“The Royal Corps of Army Music

is a Corps of the British Army dedicated to the provision and promotion of military music.”

So the stamp below, i now presume, is RMC not RWC…

M Music not W Women.

It’s from a estate so I guess it’s been in someone’s cupboard for the past 30 years. In mine for the next 30 maybe 🤞.

Any thoughts or comment welcome as always Gents.

Cheers

tony 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇬🇧

People need to remember that aside from the organised money making hacks now the norm, many other hackers are still just trolling and happily causing s**t simply for kicks & kudos.

Their targets are often sites deemed ‘irresponsibly’ lax in their security and the misery the hackers deal out is a ‘punishment’, the hack is also used to show off/prove skills and more. 

This 👇👇 on here, doesn’t even bear thinking about…
 

6 hours ago, hirmiestelio said:

The hackers tapped into old accounts (where members hadn't signed in for an extended period) and they succeeded in editing and deleting entire sections. Irretrievable.

The effort & resources put in to keep (non-commercial, not for profit) GMIC safe from ever improving hacking tools is no easy task…

& the least we can do is make sure it isn’t also a thankless one.

For every ‘unsupportive’ comment there are so many more of these  👇

8 hours ago, Megan said:

Thank you for all that you do. The world would be deminished without GMIC.

On 23/03/2023 at 00:00, TracA said:

Mine arrived yesterday. Beautiful pin. Thank you Nick, and thank you for everything that you do for the GMIC. My knowledge of my collecting area has grown exponentially because of your site and those on it who participate.

 

All the best,

 

Tracy

On 24/07/2022 at 08:53, oamotme said:

Nick,

A note to thanks & appreciation for what  you do. Whilst I am a loyal member of both OMRS & OMSA, GMIC is my 'go to site' especially for non-UK awards. The membership has a wealth of expertise which they are most generous in sharing with others. Thank you. I am happy to support what ever practical decisions you take.

Owain

🍻🍻

tony

Hi Gents,

an interesting question that doesn’t seem to have an obvious answer despite there being pretty good information on here and the web about jewellers marks.

It is normal to see most official marks ‘boxed’ in, all the assay office punch marks & the ‘Frei’ mark are.

This F is not listed as a different registered makers mark and not the known GAS marks either.

In my hunt I did find reference to ‘scratch marks’, these are different to the jewellers maker mark, mostly just 1 or 2 letters and engraved (scratched) not stamped.

As there is no reason I can see for Scheid to use an F to represent GAS.

So I wondered if it may have been an individual craftsman mark… but the appearance of an F on both of the 2 Bulgarian Crosses 👇 presumably made by a different firm makes that most unlikely.

On 29/04/2023 at 23:54, Graf said:

I also wondered if the F might be because the award was for a woman (F for female) though obviously that’s English not German…

but again the Bulgarian cross negates that because Its pretty likely it was for a man.

I did find one other GAS mark that is a silver mark, this has the letter Z 👇. Totally different in appearance but it must represent something 🤷‍♂️

and I found another Bulgarian Bravery order with the F on the same arm as the others 

My only other thought is there was a guy called Fraget who did just about all silver playing for years, is it possible he silver plated these medals?

🤷‍♂️

More questions & no answers from me!!

tony

Normally I wait for things to arrive but I can’t wait…

I went looking for pretty things for my boxes and 👇

If I’m not mistaken the swords make it 1939 onward and the earlier design on the front before the 2 language design makes it pre 1951/2?

I didn’t know this at the time I just thought it looked great. Cost £22 +3post, I’d have paid more, the ribbon is great.

I didn’t care if it belonged in the blue box but I have just read the other box thread again and now think it might anyway.

So Gents, how did I do ??

tony

Vintage Coldstream Guards…

Enzo made me slap my forehead!!

On 09/04/2023 at 03:08, Farkas said:

This is a new one to me..,

do you why it was issued without the ribbon? (assuming it was)

2 minutes ago, Farkas said:

Enzo made me slap my forehead!!

 

On 10/04/2023 at 14:23, Gordon Craig said:

  It has been suggested that this badge dates to the Boer War but I have not reference indicating that CPF badges were made in that period. 

Hi Gordon,

If this is still frustrating to me I can’t imagine how you feel! 😊

I have just found this however.

It isn’t made by Tansey but it is described as a Boer war patriotic fund badge depicting a Colonel Labelle…

”Colonel A. Labelle VD was in charge of the Montreal Patriotic Fund for the the Boer War”

There was no picture showing the reverse of the above badge but below is one by the same maker.

👍

tony

16 hours ago, Terry37 said:

 

Tony, The HG UTP badge, I am sorry to say it is a common fake. Here are pictures to show the main difference between a good and a bad UTP badge.

 

The life Guard badge is also a common fake, as a real one will have a dangling "V". See pictures.

 

The others are not in my area of collecting, so I cannot help with those

 

Thanks for the knowledge Terry 👍👍

Finding a reliable example of an original for comparison is the key. I need to get myself a good book!

I don’t buy badges too often, I go through phases, I’m in one now, but I don’t spend real money on them for good reason 😊

After another look I’m moving the Edward Viii badge out of my final 4 also, The ‘cut outs’ within the crown are poor.

Still that leaves me 2 that I think are good

tony

A real nice looking trio there… 👍👍

Hi Gents,

I’d been looking for one of these for a while and finally found one arranged wrong so available on the cheap.

a bit of adjustment and…

as you can see it isn’t the cleanest thing but it is has survived well. 😊.

cheers Gents,

tony.

Hi Gents,

I paid 25 quid for this lot and a beret…

there are 12 badges

Personally I’ve always found badges (not uniquely 😊) a minefield. Apart from a Cardiff badge (of course it was a fake) I’ve never splashed out on British badges because I just can’t tell what’s what.

In this case, while the seller offered no opinion on the originality, 2 quid each and a beret chucked in seemed worth a punt…

I’ve split them into 3 groups of 4 ;

4 that I think are copies

4 that I think are probably copies

and 4 I think might be good…

Re the 4 above…

- XX Hussars feels good

- 25 Cyclists has a stamp (u sucker tony!)
- Both life guards badges included because they (particularly Edward vii badge) have clear details to the front.

How did I do Gents?

As always any thoughts welcome.

cheers

tony

Hi cazack,

In ww2 a ‘forward delivery squadron’ , as I understand it, was part of, or attached to, dedicated armoured units. They were basically responsible for the logistics behind and physical provision of tanks (maybe AFV too) and their crews to the frontline units. 
New or repaired tanks as well as new or ‘repaired’ tank crew were organised and delivered by them.

I imagine post war British Mandate Palestine had different requirements in practice to the European theatre, & probably a slower work pace as there were certainly less tank battles! 
 

tony

PS

my congrats on an interesting medal 👍

Hi Gents,

after several years I’ve finally got a few things to add…

I’ve just picked up more empty boxes than I have medals for 😊

and a little while ago I picked up this battledress dated 1973 without details…

and this cap missing it’s badge dated 1964…

I think the shoulder lightning badge is signals 🤷‍♂️

The lightning badge looks a different age to the number 5.

Any thoughts welcome as always Gents.

cheers

tony