Daniel Murphy

Chip, That is a beauty and with the original tab. Bloody shame it's not marked (that I can see). Dan

Dave, Beautiful stuff ! I dont have much with Litzen, but now I want to pull them out and post them. Is Dunkelblau OK? Dan

Jens, It is hard to say, my generals is circa 1890s, so I would agree with you (give or take about 10 years). I agree with you on the feldgrau prices, I took out a loan at the bank to buy my last one. But it was an Id'd "1909" dated 1907 tunic that was part of a grouping to a Hauptmann of the 164th Inf.. I had to buy everything separately, but there was no way I was not going to get the whole group. Dan

WildCard, I would say this is possibly a plated medal with the plate bubbling. Can the medals be detached from the bar? If so perhaps there was originally a MVO in the 2nd place. Isn't that an officers 25 year LS cross on the end? Dan

Here is another view. Did I say we won first place? Dan

Chris, If you meant this "Mr. Murphy" then thank you and please, call me Dan. I have wandered the battlefields in Begium and France the few times I have had the chance to get there and have never found anything as nice as a trench shield. I suppose the best was a schrapnel pierced German "Gold Saba" cigarette tin from the crest of the Dead Man in Verdun that I found in '91. Amazingly, you can still read the lithography on it after 80 years in the ground. Still, that does not mean I have not acquired some nice "trench trash" through other means. Here is some of it at the last living history event I participated in. The grabenpanzer, stirnpanzer and various grenaten are mine and are all originals. Dan

Jens, That is a nice eigenthums rock for a private. Perhaps it was even a first uniform for a fahnrich, since the uniform is made from very high quality officers grade trikot wool. The only uniform I have made from this material is a Saxon Generalleutnant's uberrock. Nice! Dan

Here's my 2 cents. The Bavarian foot artillery uniform has the wrong boards and a (newly?) replaced collar. The kleiner rock has some mothing, is wartime made and does not have the nice thick cyphers seen on pre war uniforms. It is probably the most correct overall. Everything looks right including the Berlin maker. The attila is enlisted and not saxon, but a decent piece. The Mecklenburg Generals uniform is not. The insignia on the collar appears to have been removed from another uniform and handsewn onto this one. The same is true for the boards. I also find it hard to believe that a Mecklenburg general would have his unifoms made in Wuerttemburg. Dan

Tom, That 's a great pair of documents you have there. They are hard to find, but I would say the Bavarian one being particularly scarce. The officers documents are much nicer than what the average soldier was given. Here is a well worn one to a Baden artillery private. I also have his medal bar, soldbuch and reisepass. Dan

Most kukris (even older ones) are handmade by local craftsmen in Nepal. From the location where this is marked, I would say it is the owners name. It was not ususual for persons in far off areas to have stamps and stencils for marking their property. Much of it would have been hard, or impossible, to replace in the field. This looks like a nice older piece. Dan

Convex pieces in any form were private purchase only. This does not mean they were post war, far from it. I have researched some makers DRGM numbers. The DRGM protection given to the Hansen and Meybauer convex screwbacks was approved approximately December 1914. This proves they were made starting fairly early in the war (and of course continuing post war as well). Godet had been making EK1s with double hooks since the 1870s. Apparently you could buy them flat or convex and with or without hooks. This was not an alteration, they were made that way originally. Dan

I that says it better than I ever could. I did not see this before, but thank you for bringing it back so I could read it. Keep up the good work Chris, as long as they are remembered and honored, they are not truly gone from us. Dan

Tony, It is probably a factory ID. You didn't want just anyone wandering around in a place like that. Well judging from the hard looks of these "ladies" , I think the foreman is thinking "Why me? All these women and not a looker in the bunch!". Dan

A number of items were produced to commemorate the visit of the Deutschland in 1916. Baltimore and the surrounding area has a high proportion of German families and these items were popular souvenirs. There was a book printed on the voyage of the Deutschland, one version in English language and another in German (I have the German version). I see the crosses like you have on a regular basis, so most likely they made quite a number of them. The story I have heard is that they were made from the ballast of the carried over on the boat. There are also the postcards like you display. I cannot say how many came back to Germany on the return trip or in the years since. Not only were souvenirs made at her highpoint in 1916, but also at her low point. My best friend also has a steel cigar case with the Deutschland impressed into one side. It still has the original paper with it saying it was made up from the steel of the Deutschland after it was scrapped in England in 1919. Dan

Chris, That is a beautiful document. I know this is off topic, but the only thing I have similar, is a post CW (1870-1880) document like this for a black union soldier with his service recorded on it. I would buy these all day long if I could find them. I assume where the wreath is, was supposed to be a place for a photo, bloody shame it's not there. Dan

I have two pair of WW1 glasses in cases indentical to that. Same design on the brown painted rivets. Same brown paint on the brass trim and same swivel fittings on the side for the shoulderstrap. So I say the maker is C.P. Goerz, because that is the maker of both of mine. Because of the star and crescent on the lid these were probably issued glasses. Dan

Greg, I sent a message to Tony about the new info and suggested he update the lists. He told me he updated them and to post it here, but you beat me to it. Dan

Chris, Thats what you call ugly? Now who's the princess type? That is a very nice looking stamped core spangenstueck with most of the original frosting intact. You can't do any better (worse?) than that? Dan Still reigning "ugly mofo" champion

Chris, As explained above the bar can indeed be his. Come on, lets see it! Dan

Yes, possibly for a kinder uniform, but I have a trench made buckle that it about 3/4 the size of the real article. It is ugly and crude using the roundel from a match safe, but it is real. Dan

Chris, Great group, you really have an eye for them. Attached to his belt is what appears to be his safety tether and in his right hand he holds a insulator. Great shot. Dan

Thanks gentlemen. I was not 100% sure of the EK2 until Mike posted his EK1 obverse for me to compare. I I have to give him some of the credit. Now go find those KMs before someone starts raising the price. And if anyone has a KMST EK1, they don't want let me know. I don't have one yet. Any condition, love the salty ones. Dan

Even better, a look at the cross hatching. Mike's EK1 left and my EK2 right. Gotcha! Not too shabby, we nailed the maker of the KMST EK1s and the KM EK2s in one day.

Well the KM marks may be different but look at the "800" mark. The top is from My EK2 and the lower is from Mike's EK1. Different lighting conditions for sure, but they look alike to me. The numbers are kind of lumpy, but the lumps are in the same place. Dan

Close up of the marking. I know the marking is a different style and this may be a stretch, but I wonder...