Dieter3

Hi Pieter,

I too do not know how a copy of anything would keep any value, or really be of any value other than in materials if they are made from precious materials. To me anyway, a copy isn't much more than a space filler or a curio. No matter how old or unique it becomes, it will always be a copy. BUT - I sometimes boggle at the motives behind certain purchases, but I do not question them. Everybody has their own reasons - but I just hate to think that somebody buys assuming originality when an item is not.

Uber-Awesome!

I wonder if there are any surviving relatives?

You can still see the watermark, actually more easily in person than in the photo, I weaked the settings to get it to show:

Still in good condition:

Attached to the back side:

Here is the actual bare document. Not actually in terrible shape considering. Typical discoloration to be expected - BUT thankfully the front piece of glass was NOT smashed and protected the document from the shards from the back piece of glass. A low number, and issued in 1957. I didn't think re-issuing of medals happened until the 60's? Clearly I am incorrect.

I will be taking the document to a conservationist next week for assessment. Probably have the document lifted from the backing and properly mounted and framed for archival storage. Probaly cost 5x the document cost!

Tip#2 - This is why you don't smash something like this up against glass like this - you lift material from the document, and cause "burn".

Neat, huh?

A November eBay acquisition, finally arrived. I'm kinda surprised that so few people were interested in this one, but possibly because it was mounted and framed (poorly) that nobody was really interested. I'm actually not a fan of this either becasue few people know how to properly mount anything, let alone back in the 50's if that's when this was mounted.

Anyway, awarded to William Rogers Herod, an instrumental person in the ranks of International General Electric/General Electric Corp. This was a nicely researchable gent. Apparently was also an army reserve officer and served in both World Wars, a board member of the New York Philharmonic, in addition to being an engineer. Gotta dig deeper.

Anway, let's start with the bad my friends. Tip#1 - DON'T PACK GLASS simply in a box with ZERO protection. Here is the "crunchy" result. I'm sure my face was priceless when I picked up the box, but I was not surprised for some reason.

Other possibility - copy for collectors that was made in Europe.

I think you are right! Somebody is gonna get chumpped on eBay. Unless they know it is a collector's copy as it is likely the only way to get a likeness of this award!

The case is not original to the medal, so why would I keep them together? If you read the original listing from Japan (as I know you have seen it), you will see the seller explicitly stated he added the case and that it was NOT original.

We know that, it was simple curiosity about what it really was!

I'll never tell.........

One possibility for the name:

Urushiya Sen according to my "source".

What happened to the case!!!???

I'm still up for "cheapies"! Which for me means collecting mostly variants of 7th and 8th class awards (Rising Sun and Sacred Treasure anyway!)

Very nice pick-up! Thanks for sharing.

Always impressed by the quality of the lacquer cases of Japanese decorations but know next to nothing about them.

I'd assumed that they were all produced by the Japanese Mint but it would make sensue that ribbons, lacquer cases, etc, were sub-contracted to specialist manufacturers. Is Kobayashi Lacquerware a frequently encountered manufacturer of cases?

Yep! Kobayashi seems to be fairly common. Of course plenty of unmarked ones. Here is another maker, Kintou Lacquerware, also from Tokyo. I don't see these as often as Kobayashi:

I could swear I've seen a third maker too, but I don't have one and I simply can't recall the name!

Here's another interesting one with that slightly different "8"! Sold this morning. Thought about buying it, but price was climbing and I didn't want to get into a bidding war. I'll wait for another one.

BINGO! Makes sense, right? At least I'd like to think so! Never know with this stuff.......

Yeah, common enough, but always nice to get one in good condition and I needed a men's special membership medal with this hallmark. Case made by Kobayashi Lacquerware.

Perhaps too much sake.........

AWESOME!