Scott

Nice!

Oops - forgot about the egg-shaped wreath. Thanks gents. Great photos by the way!

Question: What grade(s) of Spanish Cross was typically associated with the Spanish Red Military Service Cross? Either Bronze or Silver? Silver only? Unfortunately, my archive of black & white photos of SCW vets do not reveal a clear answer. Thanks!

Great photos John. I especially like the sharpness/clarity of the first one. That wreath looks more like a 1st patterrn Juncker than a 2nd pattern Assmann to me (but I'm still learning!). :cheers:

Rick, I didn't see a listing for ribbons that were available for the bars.

Just returned from the 09 SOS in Louisville. I made several passes through the entire show in the two days I was there, and I was blown away by the profusion of repro/fake ribbon bars. Either many vendors are quite ignorant, or they all want to be on the "Sucker born every minute" bandwagon. I would guess 75% of the four-place and greater TR bars I saw were repros, most festooned with every device imaginable. I picked up a copy Rex Reddick's latest repro catalog, and he's in the ribbon bar business too (excerpt below). Anyone else out there with a differing viewpoint of the show with regards to TR bars?

Probably hard not to find mint '57 series crosses...

A nice Imperial cross by "FR"...

A minty Deumer...

My frosty S&L...

The photo below shows two modern ribbon bars for WWII German Pilots and veterans of the Spanish Civil War (see the arrows). Are these ribbons authorized by Spain for the Cruz de Guerra, or 'best-guess' by a post-war German ribbon bar maker?. I think they are a guess since the Cruz de Guerra of the type shown on the funeral pillow was not originally awarded with a ribbon.

Lilo, Thank you for posting the photo of Ettore Muti's awards. For what it's worth, German volunteers in the Spanish Civil War who were awarded the Cruz de Guerra by Spain - regardless of rank - seem to have only been awarded the 'blue background' badge, like that shown in your funeral pillow photo. If I understand Hipnos correctly, the badge you posted directly under the funeral pillow photo is that of a Maria Cristina order. Several months ago I posted a question about the same medal in post #4 (above), but I don't recall anyone providing specific information on it. The center enameled design of the medal is different from Spanish Civil War-period medals/badges, which leads me to believe this medal is not from that period.

When I saw the title of this thread, I thought you might be talking about me!

I believe the six-pointed stars are for company grade ranks, so I believe this would be a senior Lt.

Nice!!

Nice set! The embroidery work on the collar and cap look to be very nice quality.

Jacques, your search for a Godet cross brings up an interisting point... Why would any company choose not to mark their crosses with their company name/logo? Or, why would a company have a variety of marking schemes, like Juncker for example: "CEJ/900" on some, "900" only on others, and some with no mark at all (L/12 crosses came later for a reason of course). Very curious.

Hey - way to go gents!

I agree - soft details and overall poor craftsmanship in my opinion.

Nice group of crosses Master Bo! :cheers:

Wow - great stuff Harrier. Consider starting a new thread on your SCW-related collection - I'd like to see more and detailed photos of all of it!

WOW - amazing crosses gentlemen. Badge-wise, I suppose it all comes down to what you are comfortable with. The Forman's/Hardin's/Wolfe's of the collecting world can afford to be bold with their collections, and statements regarding them. They could sell original nazi ice cubes to loyal followers based on their names/reputations alone. On the other hand, a small-time, bargain hunting collector like me wants only non-controversial items that won't be difficult to liquidate by my family after I've passed on to the great SOS show in the sky.... :P

Thanks.

This '4' marked beauty can be yours for only $15,000 (plus commission, shipping, handling, insurance, etc.) from Manions... In the lower photo above, would the second officer from the left be Gunther Lutzow?

Another interesting thing about Juncker Spanish Crosses is the use of the 'CEJ' mark, which stopped being used on their aircrew badges by 1937. One would expect to see the later 'CE Juncker Berlin SW' mark on Juncker badges manufactured in late '38/early '39. I know EMedals and DN have a close working relationship, but I've seen more than one suspect item on the Emedals site, which gives me pause on anything I see there.