VtwinVince

Nice one, looks like a Hoflakei? I have an 1870 bar with this Romanian medal in gold.

Thanks Lew, a superb example. Would love to have that set in my aviation collection.

The cross in the OP looks fine to me as well. And yes, the Chinese are now heavily faking Imperial orders, guess it was only a matter of time.

Wow, that is a fantastic Scharffenberg ensemble, could you show us the reverse of the beobachterabzeichen?

Thanks for shining a spotlight on this notorious faker. I have watched his auctions for years, and he is right up there with 'the Club' and a few other shysters who list regularly. I think Schraegstich puts the 'Ohio faker' to shame with his voluminous output.

I saw this one, reverse cloth and pin are a bit weird but on balance looks genuine.

Wow, that guy is quite the 'Weihnachtsbaum', look at that Kettchen!

I'm not digging it, uneven ribbon wear and inconsistent mounting.

Thanks, I would say the Bavarian group was the bargain of the decade.

What was the final sale price? And how about lot 1028, that incredible Bavarian bar?

Hmmm, looks like someone pulled the swords on that one.

Nice stuff, I had one of those Malteser's by Godet, very high quality piece.

I agree, nice Feldschnalle.

I think it's identifiable, but you'd need access to the award rolls for Mecklenburg and Sachsen-Weimar to do some cross-referencing, and perhaps some Staatshandbuecher. I have no idea as to the date on the Wendisch Krone, maybe one of our German friends who is familiar with Mecklenburg can chime in? I'm surprised that there are no markings on the RAO or KO, as these appear to be award pieces.

OK, starting from upper left, you have a Turkish War medal, upper left is a Wuerttemberg Friedrich Order First Class with Swords, upper right a Baden Zaehringer Lion Order First Class with Swords and Oakleaf, far right an Iron Cross, to the left in the middle a Prussian Hohenzollern House Order Knight with Swords, to the lower left of that a Schwarzburg Honour Cross Third Class with Swords, then to the right a Bulgarian Military Merit Order with Swords (class?), lower right a Hessen General Honour Medal, middle lower a Lippe-Detmold Military Merit Cross Second Class and finally a Saxony-Meiningen War Merit Cross. Very nice group of decorations to a (probably) Major or equivalent, and possibly identifiable.

This one looks absolutely correct to me, with an unusual combination of awards.

Thanks to Komtur and Andreas for chiming in on this analysis. Of course if you look at the award lists you'll realise that this is a spurious combination. I wonder if any parts of this cross are indeed genuine.

Is this the one that was on German fleabay? I had a close look at it, it is very well executed, but something made me think it's not quite right.

I agree, very unusual to see a BV Spangenstueck of this order. Obviously this guy felt he deserved a third class.

Could be a gilded fourth class, this was known to happen. Very cool grouping.

I agree, the bar with the Prussian MVK looks pretty weird. Are there any markings on that cross? It does not look like an award piece at first glance. Here is my Godet bar (again) with multiple states, and a couple of others.

LOL I think Claudio has the market cornered on incredible Godet Schnallen.

Thanks for the feedback. I was also somewhat confused by the lack of a Bavarian WW1 decoration, so maybe this guy was demobbed prior to the war, then remobilised in a non-Bavarian unit?

Cross-posting this one with a German forum. A nice and somewhat unusual combo for an NCO from Bavaria.

The EK ribbon looks odd, and the usual uniformity of the wrapping of the ribbons is lacking.