Daniel Murphy

1 The spike and base should be fire gilded, they are not. 2. The stars have been played with. 3. My understanding is with most officer plates the bandeau was added separately, this one looks one piece. With such a complicated bandeau, the plates from this regt. may have been all one piece. 4. Officer plates are normally frosted with polished highlights, this does not look like pre war officer quality. It could be a wartime made helmet though with a lower quality plate I would say it is a original helmet with some modern made parts (spike, rosettes) added to "restore" it. It was a very nice high quality helmet when it was made. Dan Murphy

It looks like he had picked up a souvenir along the way. A Kar 98 AZ in nice shape. Dan Murphy

Tom, I have heard of items being kept "under glass", but this gives it a new meaning. Dan Murphy

Micha, That looks almost identical to the "Silber" marked pieces. Dan Murphy

Thats what I get for opening my big mouth. I jinxed the Rickster. Dan Murphy

Beautiful!! Only the second real one I have seen. Dan Murphy

Here is a close up of some of the threads used to make it. Really, If you have an opinion, I would like to hear it.

Here is the other spot. Sorry the blue thread is just a piece of lint.

In a couple places the yellow thread used to hold the braided bullion has deteriorated and it is loose.

Oak leaf and acorn close up.

Well, I suppose the fact that no one has proclaimed it a fake is a good sign? Here are some more pics to help. Eagle close up/

Kevin, Do you have the whole roll of honour or just the men from that county? I have a friend in England whose grandfather (last name of Cody) was an officer in the Connaught Rangers in WW1 and was killed. The name is interesting. Family history has it that "Buffalo" Bill Cody traveled to England, became enamored with a lady and fathered a child by her. Dan Murphy

Rocky, This is not German. It is Austrian ("Wien" is Vienna) which would explain the red and white ribbon and enamel. Still a great early piece. Dan Murphy

Hmm. Is that an Italian Crown Order at the end? Rick should have no problem identifying him. Dan Murphy

Reverse.

I have had this since I collected TR in the 70's-80's. When I parted with most everything for Imperial, I kept a few pieces. This is one of them. It has been nicely machine sewn on (to something) at one time. I would appreciate your honest opinions. Thanks, Dan Murphy

Paul, The tabs are real. The "tape" on the back is not tape. Glue was applied to the backing cloth and then a piece of paper was placed over it. You can see the yellow colored horse glue extends outside of the borders of the paper. As far as not being sewn on, those little cut threads hanging loose around the edge show it has been sewn on and then cut off. The fact that the threads look feldgrau does not hurt it. I have WW1 Feldgrau uniforms with yellow, blue and purple thread used to sew them together. Often it is mixed on one uniform, they just used whatever was on the bobbin.

I believe it belonged to Alfred Selen of the French 164th Infantry Regiment. I have a lot of his letters home as a POW starting in 1915. I got the tag at the same time. Here is one letter.

Reverse. This is the only one I have seen like this, has anyone else seen one? Dan Murphy

That is a 1915 that has been modified to be able to function like a 1916. I have a pair of tags on the cord, to a 4th Garde Grenadier Rgt. machine gunner and one is a modified 1915. I will dig them out and post them. In the meantime, here is a POW Id tag for a Frenchman. It is of tin with holes for sewing to the breast of the uniform. It is somewhat large at 67mm by 80mm. Obverse. Dan Murphy

No you are not dreaming, it does look real. Interesting how the EK2 was properly placed in the premier position, but the Hohenzollern was relegated to the back of the bus. Owners preference, I suppose. I have to agree with the twins though. Let's not release to much info right now.

What an @ss, to split up a set like that. But it seems to be the status quo on ebay. If I had the fast cash, I would get it to help you try to reunite them. It does seem to have a reasonable buy it now option. Dan Murphy

Only one problem, How will you get the sled mount on the plane? That probably is a fair price if it is the same quality demill as your 08/15. The last mount I saw for sale was $3500 and the last dummy gun sans mount(a US demill) was $2500. Prices have gone up since then. A nice sled mount is actually harder to find than the gun. Dan Murphy

Chris, Uh... No. There are only two pins remaining. They are shown below highlighted in yellow. The rest is the rust stained gray thread that was used to sew it down after the pins and plate were lost. Dan Murphy

Reverse. As you can see the pins were of the small wire type.