Alex K

Hi all, a bit of advice concerning a chance purchase which has been lurking in my store for quite a while. I'm no Picklehaube expert, but several months ago I chanced upon the attached in a bric-a-brac shop, to me it looked right, felt right and smelled right, so I decided to take a punt on it and bought it. Now for the nitty gritty, was it a good purchase or have I wasted my money, in all honesty it was priced the same as the average Indian reproduction, so if it's a lemon, no great financial disaster, (It will end up the Grandchildrens dressing up box most probably). or have I chanced upon a reasonable deal? The closest I can establish is with this example, image credit indicated for info all the fittings are post and nuts/washers, except for the two holding the visor trim which are substantial split pins, thr visor does show leather shrinkage Any comments appreciated regards Alex K

Hi its no problem, Those that deliberately fake items will often add spurious markings to try and convince the unwary that with these marking it must be genuine, there are many fake 1870 ek1's on the marking with numerous spurious markings, given the cost of genuine ones it makes it worthwhile for them, research is vital if you don't want to be stung, obviously if you buy a known copy, then its down to how much you want to spend regards

Hi, I'll make the following comments, clearly they are not originals, and here I would initially start by giving MY definition of a copy and a fake, others will I'm sure disagree, a copy is an accurate representation of an item without any representation or suggestion that it is an original piece, a fake on the other hand is an item that is made to, or represents itself by deception to be an original article, its made to fool, normally for monetary gain. In my opinion I would say that your pieces, the Hindenburg stern is a copy, the EK1 however may well be a fake, that in itself is not a problem for you as you clearly realise that they,re not original and paid a price you were happy with With regards to copies, it all depends on your reason for acquiring a copy, if it's to produce an Iron Cross "Timeline" display then no problem, "You pays your money and you takes your choice" I have no problem with that, there are collectors who will say that in any serious collection, there is no room for copies, fakes, call them what you will, that's their opinion and you have to respect it, even though you may disagree, there comes the situation where a piece is so rare or unique that original will never be available, That happens to be the case with the Hindenburgstern, to my knowledge there were only two known and attributable pieces, both belonged to Paul von Hindenburg, the only recipient. One he gave to a British army major/Colonel he became friendly with in the "Allied Control Commission?", that to the best of my knowledge was and may still be in a private collection in the UK. The other was retained by Hindenburg or his estate, until it disappeared when advancing Soviet forces over-ran and ransacked his estate at Neudeck, in Silesia, (Now deep inside modern Poland, it was completely demolished in the late 1940's I think) its whereabouts are unknown, possibly destroyed or lurking somewhere in the former Soviet Union, who knows. Copies! as you state there are or were many copies, (and many flooding out of modern china as I write) so it comes down to when copies are made, There seems to be a cut-off date of 1945-ish, anything before that is deemed by many as having some sort of legitimacy, as they were made by "Legitimate" makers for museum display, that's perfectly true, so are collectible, anything after 1945, is fake junk and should be trashed, once again, opinions, in the end you as the collector have to decide where your opinions lie, on a slightly different but related theme, Rudolf Souval Grand Crosses and Knights crosses of the Iron Cross, I have been collecting on and of for 50+ years, in the majority of that time these items have been classed as pure junk and could be obtained for a few GBP's suddenly the "Collecting world" has now decided otherwise, have a look at the prices being asked for this "junk" now, and they are being snapped up!! Cant really say more about the 1870 EK1 as I don't as yet have either a copy of original, but maybe one-day... Finally attached two Hindenburgsterns, the first (Gold background) is in my collection, it is a copy no doubt attributed to Stenhaur and Luck, a current and wartime manufacturer of ODM's to the TR government and current Federal government, when was it made, havnt got a clue, do I like it, I love it! the EK1 on the front is an authentic period piece the second is not mine, (Borrowed the image from another site, hope the owner doesn't mind), this is attributed to Godet and Sohne, if so it will be pre-1945, value, whatever you are prepared to pay for them I suppose. sorry to have gone on for so long, regards Alex K Neudeck

Hi amazing! thanks for the information, I think you are spot on, another medal to add to my database, didn't know about this one regards and Thanks

Hi all, I have another medal identification medal request, Max von Hausen's medal bar has what appears to be from what I can see, a KUK long service medal after his EK2 (1870), from what I know, he never served in the Kuk, the medal after that one appears to be a Saxon Long service award which would make sense, no other Saxon award seems to fit, am I right or have I got it completely wrong, if I have any ideas as to what the mystery one is? any help, appreciated as usual regards Alex K edit, the only other one that half matches is this one but I thought this was a female only award so I'm counting it out

Hi Gordon, that's my main interest, it unfortunately painfully slow

Thanks, I've looked everywhere so far but without success, maybe one day!

A further belated update, Major Tarkowski was killed by sniper fire on the 22nd May whilst leading an attack on Piedemonte. By chance I came across these images from the imperial War Museum (Image Credits), showing the moment that the groupr of snipers responsible for, amongst others the death of Major Tarkowski, Paul Minich the man in charge f the sniper party is shown surrendering and being searched, the caption reads "He was just pulled out of a bunker manned by three German paratroopers (commanded by Minich), responsible for death (amongst others) of Major Ludomir Tarkowski, the Deputy CO of the 5th Battalion, 2nd Brigade (3rd Carpathian Rifles Division, 2nd Polish Corps), shot dead on 22 May. Major Tarkowski was leading an assault on Piedimonte. The pillbox was discovered when AFPU cameramen, Sergeants Johnson and Barnes wanted Lesiak to stage a prisoner taking operation. At the same precise time the Germans decided to surrender" Interesting, All this time and I still havn't found an image of Major Tarkowski

Hi thanks for the additional information, true, special classes are seen so infrequently seen, images are difficult or impossible find, the ones you posted are amazing. regards Alex

Hi Laurentius, wow, thanks for the quick reply and images, very nice item, I wondered if it was a special class, as all my efforts to find information on it drew a blank, much appreciated. regards Alex

Hi all, I don't mean to hijack the thread but I've found an image similar to the one posted, which seems to show Leopold wearing the Grand cross sash and badge of the house order, however the badge shows what could be described as Laurel devices between the arms, I can't seem to find any reference to it, the badge itself is reversed, apologies but anyone know anything about it. regards Alex k

Hi Guys, thanks for the input, my personal thinking is the Carl Eduard medal for Arts and Science, what do you think? regards Alex K

Hi all, another identification request, Carl Eduard, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha medal bar, any of our VERY clued up members recognise the one indicated, I think, think it is coinage head with possibly some device suspension partially hidden by the ribbon, (Could be wrong), I've got all the rest. any help appreciated regards Alex K

Old age, I know the feeling

Hi Larry thanks for the additional info, very interesting link regards Alex

Whilst looking, I came across this interesting image, both the VC AND Iron Cross, no name unfortunately, image credit indicated

Hi Peter thanks for the response, I'll try your suggestions for some google searches, might come up with some other named images, regards Alex Update, found him https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_William_Pitcher

Hi all, just a quick question, does anyone recognise who this rather distinguished VC winner is, any help appreciated regards Alex K

Hi as an update, I knew I had a similar image on file, it's a TIFF image (Whopping 39.5mb), I was able to zoom right in to capture a higher quality image, just for interest Now that I look, they're everywhere! this guys wearing one too

OMG yet another dream shattered

Hi yes I've seen that image before but never spotted the star on his right breast, nice decoration though, I believe that it had a red sash and possibly a sash badge

Hi Thanks for the info, I'll check it out, nice image by the way regards Alex edit, Just checked Megan's site, spot on, thanks, a pretty rare medal to find info on.

Hi all, a bit of help if possible, I came across this image of Alexei Evert in all his splendour, unfortunately I cant identify one breast star, I don't think it's imperial Russian, any ideas, all help appreciated regards Alex K

Wow! thanks for the quick reply, useful to know, regards Alwx

Hi all, another unidentified medal on Scheer's bar, His "Wicki" page list some, but not all, but those listed don't seem to tally with the one indicated, any ideas, also his Iron Crown appears to have the obverse central shield with the F monogram un-enamelled, did they exist? As usual any help appreciated Alex K