peter monahan

The vast majority are British [or Imperial/Commonwealth]. Most public libraries will have at least one book about them. If you can attach names, even if only in your own head, to medals, these dialogues will be far less confusing and your chances of selling them much improved.

And I wonder how the knife made its way from Argentina to SA - probably the easy half to explain- and then to Somerset! The joys of collecting.

My only contribution is to say that when I lived in West Africa we were told that bone will scorch in flame and ivory will not. tested that theory with a match and a piece of 'ivory' and it's true! I raised a nice blister on my finger touching the very hot but unmarked ivory. You probably don't want to risk scorching what looks like bone to me too but there may be other methods to distinguish - I haven't needed to check in 30 years now. I'm glad its genuine, as its a lovely piece! A friend of mine has a number of faux scrimshaws - made of high grade acrylic in the form of sperm whale teeth - which he acquired in Hawaii years ago, and which I've always been fascinated by. I believe they're copied from originals and the detail on some is exquisite.

Unusual and quite attractive, IMO. Thanks for sharing.

I love the photos of His Majesty on the horse: one rider, two handlers and 4 cloak holders. Gotta be a government job!

Sadly that's the case: without provenance it could be one of many many things and, unlike military wear, there are no regulations nor lists by which to ID such items.

Lovely. Well up to his usual standards.

I've never tried Trstram Shandy. Is it made with ginger beer as well?

Ooooh! Shiny! A very attractive award. Thanks for sharing it.

One offs, manufactured by State jewellers were probably far from rare originally but given the exifgencies of time and distance now rank with hen's teeth! Some of the State regalia and awards are truly lovely and, sadly, some are of the order of 'Make it like this [official award] but shinier!' Let's hope we get to see more closeups. I would say, that the bar is clearly hand engraved, which is to be expected. Haven't checked but I don't believe the original had bars as such, as the awrd itself was a single issue and pretty well self explanatory and self contained. Nice touch though!

Not military but may be livery, ie: a servant's uniform.

I'm surprised I didn't find him in the War Graves records and apologize for that oversight!

Believe it or not, a member of the Great War Association in the US made a running model of one of these out of plywood and metal and brought it to our Spring 2016 event at Newville. It was static, as I understand the transmission failed, but very very impressive. Even more inriguing was the fact that he scaled up plans from a 1/35th scale Tamiya plastic model rather than using measurements and photos of actual examples. I have no idea what the interior looked like, but it is a true labour of love and very cool.

Mind, putting the handles on would make it easiert to re-fit a chin strap if necessary.

And are you saying that's a bad thing, Paul? If I worked in a hospital I'd be putting away all the alcohol I could lay hands on! But, yeah,. that's a lot of beer. I worked in the bush with a camp cook one summer who drank a 'two four' - 24 half pint bottles - every working day, starting at 6:00 a.m. and working till 6:00 p.m. Never visibly drunk but never without an open bottle on one corner of his stove. Been doing it for years and this may just have been his maintenance doseage, with 'real drinking' saved for his days off . More seriosuly, should we consider re-naming this thread? It appears to have strayed somewhat from 'German Army X-rays' since its inception.

The $64 question with South asian stuff! It seems as if tailor's copies are widely accepted, if not for wear in uniform then for retired servicemen, and it wouldn't be the first time a veteran has worn a 'bar' he/she felt entitled to, either copied from an issue device or made up out of whole cloth. In fact, there are now a large number of 'bars' for WWII actions - 'Normandy' and 'D-Day' come to mind - made up for those who feel the government SHOULD have issued such things and worn on various devices by veterans. So, you pays your money and you takes your choice!

I'd say check Taiwan / Nationalist China for no. 1, based on the star, and I think I see Arabic symbols/letters on No. 2 . The device atop no. 2, where one often sees a crown is odd - [erhaps a flower? Neither rings any immediate bells.

He does not appear in the Commonwealth War Graves records. My subscription to Ancestry does not cover the UK, but their records list over 100 Frank Hirst hits, so likely 10-20 individuals [my guess] odf that name saw service in WWI. Perhaps a member with an Ancestry.UK account could help.

I should have thought of the Gurkhas, all of whom of course were Rifle regiments. Ten regiments pre-1947 and 3 after gives lots of scope for pill boxes, which were standard gear fro them for many years. Not sure when the Indian Army, who got the other 7 units at Indepepndence, would have stopped using pill boxes but possibly quite late, as they have a great affection for the old style uniforms and seem to have the funds to outfit bands, honour guards and so on in the 'old style' uniforms. Sending a phoito to the Rifles Muzeum may be your best bet.

Not sure what you mean by 'ordinary nurses' but, yes, by WWII when I think all Allied nurses were officers rank it was a source of cinsiderable rancour that 'only those so**inf officers' got a crack at them. And our Matron, while no balltleax is a fromidable woman. She has been known to hand packages of period correct propholactics to erring Tommies and Doughboys before handing them over to our chaplian for the obligatory lecture! Love the 'legless' story, BTW. "Twue wove..."

Too bad! That would be one classy looking award if real.

I'm not sure how accessible WWII records are, as my Cdn interests are Great War, but the serial string may help. In WWI, blocks of numbers were asigned to regiments and I assume the same was true in WWII, so the first few digits - probably first three- may ID the unit in which your man enlisted. The Queen's York Rangers and GG's Horse Gurad were, I think, the only other MD2 armoured unit, as the 1st Husasar were London based [MD 1] Good luck!

Jojo Welcome to the GMIC! We're all interested amateur's here, so no guarantees we can help, but many of us are willing to try. Odd sword. The style is almost 'cutlass', given the heavy pommel and guard, but with a straight blade - certainly not anything modern in terms of style. The large pommel is rather unusual and, from what little I can see, the workmanship on the guard is quite crude. I think the grip is disks of leather. All that suggests to me a home made piece, but I may be very wrong. More photos, showing details and any markings at all would make a definite identification more likely. Peter

I'd say your best bet - as a non-expert [me, I mean] - is to keep searching for examples of 'Rifles cap', 'pill box cap' and whatever other variant search strings pull up images and look for similar pieces. OR, check the Rifles Museum - http://riflesmuseum.co.uk/?page_id=142 - and see what they can tell you. It certainly has the character of a late 19th century Rifles cap, or something made to look as if it were - again, to my non-expert eye - but the King's crown may argue the latter: a modern piece made up for the historically garbed band of a Rifles regiment. Good luck. Nulli deperandum!

Stunning!