Luftmensch

Front panel, in vertical pairs of names from left to right...

37. Forstmann

and

38. Moraht

39. ?????
and
40. ?????

41. Hersing
and
42. Rose

43. ????
and
44. Marschall

45. ????
and
46. Siess

47. Hartwig
and
48. ????

49. ????
and
50. ????

FYI I identified a few U-boat aces from two postcards someone sent me.

They are from reunions of the last living PLM holders in 1966--at the baths in Wiesbaden--and 1967--at the thermal baths in Baden-Baden!

Left panel, left to right:

51. ????

52. ????

53. ????

Right panel:

54. Lancelle

55.  ?????

56. Seidel

Maybe this is an Army panel?

7th Row...

25. Keller

26. Bäumer

27. Blume

28. Büchner

29. Rieper

30. Leonhardy

8th Row...

31. Berthold

32. Manfred Frhr. v. Richthofen

33. Boelcke

34. Lothar Frhr. Richthofen

35. J. Veltjens

9th Row...

squeezed below Boelcke...

36. Frhr v Leffers ?

3rd Row...

11. Frhr. O. Boenigk

12. Könnecke

13. ???????

14. Gotthard Sachsenberg

4th Row...

15. Ernst Udet

16. C Degelow

17. H Klein

18. Greim ?

5th Row...

19. Frhr von Pechmann

20. Laumann

6th Row...

21. Ed. Ritter von Schleich

22. Julius Buckler ?

23. Hans-Georg Horn

24. Brandenburg

Lid, top row, left to right...

1. Jacobs

2. Göring

3. Loerzer

4. Bolle

5. Köhl

2nd Row...

6. ?????????

7. Müller-Kahle

8. Bongartz

9. Homburg

10. Theo Osterkamp

Below is a cigarette box (10 1/2 inches x 5 1/2) that you may have seen recently on eBay. I finally worked a trade with the owner in the Netherlands.

Engraved on it are a helluva lot of Blue Max winners for one mere mortal to have known all by himself--56 in total. 36 pilots.

The Dutch connection (someone's grandfather got it in Holland after war's end in 1945) makes me think of Anthony Fokker. He would have courted all these celebrity pilots as he lobbied for aircraft contracts. Sadly a big plaque inside the lid is long gone...

It is hallmarked...

The previous owner said the fullsize cross was loose.

I noticed it is affixed in a that it can be made to rotate around it's center, revealing a beautifully engraved PLM underneath.

The stickpins also show traces of having been engraved underneath.

I keep hearing the Geschaeftsleiter tell his jeweller after the beautiful engraving was done, "Was ist? I can't see it! Make it pop!! Put a real one there!"

I will now start posting the names, which are in neat rows instead of all over the place.

Most I have been able to identify from signed photos, but there are some I have put with question marks because I need confirmation.  There are a few that I just can't figure out.

There are 36 pilots on the lid, and on the sides and front panel another 20 names--mostly U-boat aces, which probably means this didn't belong to Fokker. The U-boat names I need the most help with. Thanks!

Will start posting signatures shortly...

Just received this...

http://wcn.pl/auctions/39/973

POLAND. Shares commemorative medal of Independence in Krakow in 1914., designed by Joseph Wolf struck in Vienna effort Książęco-Bishop's Committee in Krakow, Aw: Torso of the Virgin Mary with the Child and the inscription Queen CROWN POLISH IN YOU HOPE OUR MCMXIV, Rw: On a wreath of thorns and laurel view of Wawel Castle, at the top of the crown and eagle broke away the chains, brass 60.44 g, 41.5 x 64.2 mm, 271 R Strzałkowski

Crown from  city seal.

Right! I was just tipped off it has something to do with Castle Wawel in Cracow...but what? and when?

The crown feels a little bit like a Bulgarian crown but is by no means a ringer.

Any world travellers out there seen this castle before?

Can anyone ID this?  Prinzen sized, unmarked...

Thank you both.  Rgds

Don't know my Italian medals and would be grateful for any IDs.  Also, what do the appurtenances mean?--that mini pilot's wing and the two stars??  Thanks in advance...

Thanks, Alex.

The paint is PERFECT...but after that there are a lot of little differences to the pin, the lower loop, the Zep's nose, and even the hallmark is quite the same.

Too bad. It's well made!

This belongs to an old friend who doesn't even own a computer, so I had to scan his polaroids!

Those of us who have Messrs. Pandis, Baldes and Previtera's books know the typical early `20s Meybauer, I call it the "Zucchini" type with the Zeppelin's swollen front section! Also they are all plated.

This one has some nice Meybauer features but others that are very different.

Opinions?

Is this Meybauer hallmark okay?

Could the badges have changed style by the 30s? Could Meybauer have made some "luxus" 800 badges once put a lot of old soldiers back on the payroll?

Ferg has a beautiful plated Meybauer Army of the conventional type that everybody looks for now. Maybe he'll post some pix here for comparison.

Militaria for dogs, I'm glad my wife doesn't read this forum. We'd be up to our ears in labs...

On a more serious note, a large (nameless!) auction house in the UK has refused to take these on consignment and won't say why. The hint was dropped by someone else that there is rampant electroforming going on. Would someone tell me what the signs of this are?

By the way, the provenance of these are...

1. 21st...ex-Walter Lamberts, sold at Wallis & Wallis Connoiseur Sale

2. 17th...Tom Romans (ex-17th) and valued by Graham Lay on Roadshow years ago at 2-3000 pounds (I have the DVD)

So I'm baffled, but I suppose these could have been switched out at some point for nefarious purposes. But I'm starting to think british plates are a minefield more fraught than Nazi daggers!!! Next I will try Wallis & Wallis.

Thanks for any tips on ID'ing electroforms.

This is the last of Luftmensch's Victoriana! I usually stick to WW1 aviation, but these looked nice so I took them in trade. I hear to my dismay that British helmets and plates have become somewhat of a snakepit with so many good fakes about. Do these pass muster? Thanks for any opinions.

I'm told this is the "second pattern"? Of which none were made for ORs?

Will do, Mervyn. Thanks again!

Thanks for your kind words, Mervyn.

I imfer from your answer the lace pattern and cap badge identify it as Inspector General, Royal Engineers. The record shows a publicized visit to Netley on Dec. 8, 1898, the same day the Queen visited, when he presented Sudan medals to Atbara and Omdurman veterans. He may have made less heralded visits since then. Would he have worn this cap as Field Marshal? and would he have left uncovered? I suppose he might also have sent Netley a regimental cap surplus to his needs as a memento.

I still wonder why, with all of Kitchener's exalted titles, the maker of the sampler styled him "RE IG"? Was that his highest regimental rank and therefore in keeping with traditional naming and one's first (and last) association with the regiment above all others? Perhaps the Kitchener Army veterans at Netley had this, and his cap, in mind.

Rgds

John

I've had this since the 1980s, never knowing whether to believe the story I was told. Fast forward 30 years and now I can run it by such esteemed experts as yourselves!

ALLEGEDLY, Hugh King was visiting Royal Victoria Hospital Netley and was given the following forage cap and sampler by the director. He said that Kitchener left it behind on a visit with Boer War veterans and, having an association with the Hospital, they kept it as a treasured memento.

The sampler was done by WW1 invalids after Kitchener's death and kept folded up with the cap.

I don't have a Dress Regulations, but I was told the cap is for the Inspector General of Royal Engineers, which post Kitchener occupied I don't know when. It looks like a general officer's cap to me. The sampler I noticed has "RE IG" prominently displayed at the top below "HK". Why would the sampler highlight that rank when he had more exalted?

Any daylight on these would be much appreciated.