LuckySlevin

Hi, Thank you both for your comments. I would like to hope that the way the swords are added is due to the necessity to convert a peacetime to a military time. Adding few more photos: Also below is the full bar, to which I don't have questions: @Graf, if by any case you have any examples of orders with similar (not the most professional) swords addition that would be very helpful. Thank you, Lucky

Hi Gentlemen, Have you ever seen this kind of swords on the Order of the Crown? I know that during the WWI it was probably common to reuse peace-time decoration and to adapt them for war merit but I have never seen this "unprofessional" swords attachment. Thank you in advance for your opinions. Best, Lucky

Thank you, was really happy to see this tiny "S"! Probably one of the reason could not find him in Hof- und Staatshandbuch des Königreichs Bayern 1914 is that most/part of awards could have been awarded during the war period. May be will have some luck at some point finding him.

Hi Gentlemen, I would like to present a Bavarian civilian bar that I purchased recently. 1.König-Ludwig-Kreuz 1916 2.Silberne Zivilverdienstmedaille 3.Luitpoldkreuz 40 Jahre im Staats- und Gemeindedienst 4.Silberne Medaille des Verdienstordens vom Heiligen Michael 5.Sachsen Ehrenkreuz (Allgemeines Ehrenzeichen) 1876 6.Fürstlicher Hausorden von Hohenzollern Silberne Verdienstmedaille 7.Franz Joseph Orden Silbernes Verdienstkreuz mit Krone with repair. Zivilverdienstmedaille is probable a late awarded one as only S is seen from LOSCH: I was trying to search him in Hof- und Staatshandbuch des Königreichs Bayern 1914, but so far no success. I am not sure if there are later Bavarian Hof- und Staatshandbuch and will be very grateful if anyone could suggest how else could search him. Thank you in advance, Lucky

Hi, Interesting remarks. I don't see for now a reason why there is such a difference in preservation of last 4 awards. But the seller ( and me too) could not correctly identify the last ribbon as being a Dannebrog one. I think the order of the sword was removed and preserved separately as it was made from gold and clearly few times higher of price than other decorations on the bar. I think the bar itself gives an impression that there was a hard removal of last orders from the way it os deformated.

Unfortunately he already sold it, I was too slow. Will have to find it somewhere else.

Hi Great Dane, Thank you a lot for the information. Now on the hunt for the missing pieces!

Understood, thank you a lot for sharing the information !!! Thank you for mentioning the 2 names, it is quite surprising that this one was identifiable! This is the order of Sword he is offering: He says it is in gold, 17.69G and did not mention any hallmarks. I guess this one fits well into the story ?

roughly 800 eur and the Order has some email losses-I think the price is too high.

Dimitrie Poenaru (1860-1932) should be our guy. Found him in a book: Order of Takovo knight 1884 Order of Dannebrog Officer 1895 Order of the Sword 1895 Knight Order of Saint Alexander Bulgaria 1898 25 year Service 1904 French Legion of Honour 1909 Order of the Romanian Crown Officer 1912 Order of the Star Romania Officer 1914 retired after 1915 Another photo of the last 2 ribbons: The last one is obviously Dannebrog. Also the seller actually has an Order of the Sword which he claimed to come with the bar but I was unsure because of unclear ribbon and I was clearly wrong. There were only 2 guys who received the Dannebrog in 1895 in Officer class. In the book it is not mentioned the Medalia „Avântul Țării” but he is mentioned in a document related to operations of of the fleet on the Danube during the Balcan Wars. There is even a photo but unfortunately it is very unclear: For some reason he did not put on the bar the very first Order of Takovo, the bar was made after 1914, when he received the Order of the Star.

Unfortunately it is not Constantin Manescu as awards do not match. For Dimitrie Poenaru still trying to find out.

Hi JohanH, Thank you a lot for your answer! Indeed I agree with you that 9 ribbon seems to be of Danish Dannebrogorden because the white edge is narrow while Danilo Order would have a wider one. Also the Swedish Order of Sword would go better with the Danish one even if the ribbon looks to be wrong but may be the wearer just put the closest ribbon he could find. I did not know that there were a lot of Romanians who received the Order of Sword. Could you please give some context how this could happen and if you are aware of some lists. Thank you in advance, Lucky

Hi, I am soon to receive the following bar which unfortunately had seen some difficult times but definitely belonged to a Romanian Military officer with an interesting career: I would be very grateful if you could share your opinions on the story of this guy and the missing orders I need to complete it: Here is what I think but I can be wrong: I think it is obvious it is a pre WW1 bar and given that all of the orders are peace decorations (expect the medal for the Balcanic war), the missing orders should be also peace ones: 7. It is obvious that it is a Saint Alexander 4th class without swords 8. Order or the Iron Crown -I guess the non-war issue which should be in gold -I think very rare for a Romanian to get 9. Order of Danilo 4th class or 5th class but I think given the rank of other orders it should be 4th class. Is it possible to find the wearer ? Are there somewhere available lists of Romanians who got the Danilo order or the Iron Crown as they should not be too many? Any comments are welcome! Thank you in advance, Lucky

Hi Gentlemen, There is the following medal bar which may be identifiable: Unfortunately no pictures of the back, but the medals and ribbons seem to be fine and have similar wear. I looked in 24,28 Rangliste des Deutschen Reichsheeres but could not find the BH, OMK3 and BT4 combo. Would be very grateful if anybody could suggest where I could look. Thank you a lot in advance. Lucky

Thank you both for your comments. I just wanted to say that I contacted the seller and asked if they have any details of provenance or where from they have the bar. The seller kindly told me that he is selling a lot of medals from different sellers and he can not check with everyone the provenance... However on his website he has very few medal bars and mainly simple medals... Given that on his website he is also selling all the simple medals separately I am a little bit afraid that this one could be a made up medal bar. May be I am too sceptical.

Thank you a lot Siumius Rex for such a detailed explanation !

If I am not mistaken, your cross looks more like the last ones I posted which have slightly different design from the ones produced by Schneider. If anyone has any info on other producers of those crosses, It would be nice to know it.

Last bid I think it was 1.8k eur.

Hi Gentlemen, I have seen this bar for some time selling online and would be happy to know your point of view on it as the price seem slightly higher then on average for this type of awards (at least in my view). front: back: some more photos: MVO is a nice one made by GH. At first glance it seems ok to me. The bar is made in classic Bavarian style. All awards seem to be original and the ribbons too with similar wear. He had an officer rank in WW1 (was serving already before 1912). After WW1 he was holding some non military position and this way he got the non-military war merit cross and the Treudienst Ehrenzeichen in Silver (25 years of service). Probably some connection to air force due to Luftschutz medaille. Overall the combination seems to make sense. However, I will be very grateful if anybody seeing issues could voice them. Thank you a lot. Kind regards, Lucky

Hi, I just wanted to share a bar which recently went on an auction but could not buy it as the price was much higher then I was ready to pay for it, but still wanted to share: STABSARZT DR. EMIL SCHMIDTPOTT

@Deruelle thank you a lot for that info. It makes sense given that first 4 crosses shown have all same design. I guess then, given also @VtwinVince statement, the last 2 examples I showed should be fakes as the design is clearly different from Schneider crosses. Thank you both a lot! @VtwinVince do you have some other examples of fakes or what to take attention to ? Kind regards, Lucky

Hi Gentlemen, Could you please help me with the manufacturers of the kriegsverdienstkreuz 1915. So far I could find 3 design looking at pictures available online but only 2 came mentioning the manufacturers: Schneider company in Leipzig sometimes coming with a S and I guess the most beautiful examples: Then I saw some examples which have almost the same design but manufactured by CE Kunath in Dresden but seem to be of worse quality: Finally, a design for which I found only 2 examples on the web : (this one taken from a bar which is currently on auction from zeige) and a closer comparison of details: We can clearly see differences in the portrait, letters size in the center, 1915. Does anybody know who is the manufacturer of the third type or have crosses with this design ? This one is quite different from the first 2 producers who have almost identical designs in details. Thank you a lot for your help. Kind regards, Lucky

Was it a general rule for officers acting in Colonies to receive those military awards ? I agree that on most officer medal bars with colonial claps I can see have RAO4X or KO4X. However I found those medal bars which do not have RAO4X or KO4X: https://www.suche-militaria.de/artikel/Ordenspange-mit-13-Auszeichnungen-1331280326.html https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alexander_Meurer_IMMH_Orden_4.jpg Also, I not sure if there is a list of officers participating in the sudwestafrika but I could find some of the Saxon officers with gross-namaland clasp in the book: https://brema.suub.uni-bremen.de/dsdk/content/structure/1905769 Der Hottentottenkrieg .

Hi Gentlemen, I will be very grateful if you could give me your opinion on another Saxon medal bar currently on ebay. I have few questions/concerns: 1)+The ribbons from the bar have clear signs of wear and those signs seem to be uniform across different awards and the awards look good. -However the quality of the attachment of the awards/sewing of ribbons looks to me poorer compared to other officer Saxon bars seen on this forum but may be it is just because the bar was not kept properly. -The sudwestafrika denkmunze is not attached at the same level as the other awards. 2)-Is the combination of the Albrechtsorden 1 class with crown and swords compatible with the Kriegsverdienstkreuz 1915 ? From what I saw on this forum, Kriegsverdienstkreuz 1915 is generally present on non-combatant bars. Unfortunately I could not check this award in the Rangliste der Königlich-Sächsischen Armee as I could find those only till 1914. 3) I saw on other thread of this forum (where from I borrowed some images) that the gross-namaland bar was faked a lot. The one on this bar appears to me to be close to the ones from this thread: this medal bar: other ones from this forum which seem to be close to it: All of those seem to have matching letter designs and the font. However I found slightly different font on few bars from kunker: I would be very grateful for any comment on the above 3 points (or other of course). Thank you a lot, Lucky

I would like also to thank everyone for their opennesses and shared knowledge!