Hauptmann

Hi Giorgio, PM sent. Dan

Hi Rick, Well, no idea what anyone else thinks but I for one think it's a beautiful piece! Nice back... I'm probably the only one who hasn't seen such but I kinda like how it's mounted with the pins coming through the back. Very nice work! A very simple but alluring design. Thanks so much for sharing it with us. Dan

Hi Chris, Great shots of the piths in wear. Although some troops didn't like pith helmets once can definitely see they kept a great deal of the sun off once head and probably shoulders as well. Plus they're light weight... of course not much good in a combat situation when protection is the highest order of concern. Thanks for sharing these, Dan

Hi all, I'd like to second the motion! As I've said before these are simply fantastic. So much history... so many faces and places that otherwise might be long forgotten were it not for fantastic collections like these. You are literally preserving what was for those who have not yet been born and I know they will thank you as we do. Dan

Hi Giorgio, Yes, that's another great one. Was actually in some ways the inspiration for Hogan's Heroes. I too have absolutely no idea what they're worth. Let me see if I can do some digging and get back with you. Right now I'm struggling with a bad stomach flu that hit me last night/early this morning. I've been sleeping most of the day and have only been able to have a few sips of water and now a few of gatorade. Feeling lousy so need to get off of here for now. But will check in again as soon as I can. Mucho thanks! Dan

Hi Giorgio, Glad I could help. As for interest, I would be... if it was from Stalag 13! And yes folks, there was a real Stalag 13. I just missed a document from that stalag about ten years ago on Ebay. Do wish I'd managed to get it as I've always been a tremendous fan of Hogan's Heroes. Just out of curiosity, what would you be asking for it? Dan

Many thanks! Again I don't hold out much hope but figured I'd check just in case. I only wish I still had the LC as that would have been a nice one to have as well restored. Kept it for years and years but then the opportunity came up to trade it for a bunch of stuff so off it went. Long before moving up here or joining GMIC. If I'd only known then what I know now... Also sorry for the late reply... as posted in the Lounge we've been off on a bit of an excursion these last few days so I've not been on the computer as much as I normally am. Thanks again, Dan

Hi Vic, Indeed, a great start. Especially love the first two as you know. I pray you'll find the bronze before too long. I also hope to get a set of these at some point down the road but glad you managed these, and especially at the great prices you managed to get them for. Ya did great!!!! Keep up the good work and before long you'll have tons of DDR to be proud of. Dan

Hi Giorgio, I can't put this in concrete... hopefully one of the other members can confirm it. But I believe this is an ID tag of the type issued to POW's in a German prison camp. They'd be assigned a number such as you see on the tag. Like other German "dog tags" they'd be broken in half if the POW died, half was kept for graves registration and the other was left with the body so they'd be able to keep track of who was who. As far as I know it was kept with the body when buried for future identification should that ever have been needed. Dan

Hi Dan, Welcome to the club! Many apologies on this... was so intent on dealing with the Blockade set at the time I didn't think about the other other than making that comment. It's a piece I inherited from my father. Basically it's a silk on silk tapestry that belonged to Madame Chiang Kai-Shek of China... wife of Generalisimo Chiang Kai-Shek, leader of Nationalist China during WWII and then Taiwan for many years after the communist takeover of the main land. Madame Chiang was a famous person in her own right and was very involved in the history of the time. She was the first woman to speak before the U.S. Congress and she and her husband knew and spent time with President and Mrs. Roosevent as well as other top personalities of the time. She only died a few years ago and made it to over 100. There's quite a bit about her out on the web. Sadly I don't have any pics of it handy... I could do another set but not sure if I can get to it for a bit. It's not huge but it's bigger than the bed on my scanner. I can do digital pics but to be honest they really don't do it justice. I'll ponder it for a bit and see what I can come up with. It's actually so well done that it's really beautiful from the front or the back. Was made early 1900's and belonged to her through the 30's. She was going to have it made into a pillow case but it was seen by a friend of her's who admired it and so she made a gift of it to him. It's documented. But it's something I don't have a set value on and I'm torn on letting it go... especially as my son Nick loves things oriental. It's a difficult item to value. If not for it's provenance it would be worth a good bit less. But the historical connection makes it more valueable. Just like a tablecloth belonging to Eva "Braun" Hitler would be. But even then there are levels regarding that kind of value. To someone generally interested in WWII it would possibly be of interest... to someone interested in China's history during that period or specifically in General Chiang and his wife or just specifically in her... she being one of three famous Chinese sisters of the period, all with historic connections... well it could be worth that much more. Or to someone who is interested in this type of artwork it would be another price. Definitely something I'd have to have properly appraised to include a written appraisal which I could not afford at that time... and it would still be tough... at least for a bit. Anyhow hope that solves the mystery. Again I'll be happy to try and do up some pics and post this at some point if there's anyone who would like to see it. Thanks, Dan

Hi Jim, Yet another excellent question. Kinda wondered about that myself. But many thanks on what seem excellent answers on my original question. Glad it got a good discussion going. I'm really enjoying this and hope to learn more before all is said and done. Thanks! Dan

Hi Chris, Perhaps you could write to some veterans groups there and see if perhaps someone may know of him. Stranger things have happened. I do hope more info turns up. On the insignia I'll keep my eye out for similar piths and see if I can find out what would have been worn there. And perhaps one of our fellow members knows more about these and can chime in here. Be great if someone had some pics of them with insignia being worn. It's very similar to the ones our U.S. forces used for a time in certain theaters. I've seen them with Marine insignia as well as Army and am sure they were probably used by the naval forces and the Army Air Corps and early Air Force as well with their appropriate insignia. Shoot, some of our postmen here in the states still wear one nearly identical to yours although in plastic. Definitely keeps the sun out. Dan

Hi Jim, PM sent. On how many folks collect them... I don't have any numbers but I know several of our fellow members have Umalatova awards in their collections. I see them for what they are... curiosities of the post Soviet era. I also look at it this way... way back in the day when I was still into TR and I discovered the 57 reissues I expressed an interest in getting some. I was told by all and sundry that they were junk to be avoided. Of course they were comparing them with the actual TR awards and in that battle they were of much less quality by comparison. However, over time they've gone up considerably in value as TR has gone out of sight forcing collectors to look elsewhere... and the 57's seemed to be the next logical alternative. And they now seem to be an excepted area of collecting. I only wish I'd picked up a ton of them back then as you generally couldn't give them away. Instead I managed to obtain the 1936 1st class Olympic Decoration, a Russian Front medal and a cased German Cross in gold. I may be forgetting a piece but I think that's the bulk of them. And now I've basically been priced out of most of them... at least for the forseeable future. Plus my focus for quite some time has been Soviet and Soviet block. So I guess I'm trying to put together a decent little collection of the Umalatova's for several reasons, the curiosity factor, hedging my bets like I didn't do with the German 57's, and because I like the design of many of the awards, especially those copied from the original Soviet pieces. As far as how many are buying them as original Soviet issue pieces... again no idea. I'd assume there will always be some... those who have not purchased the red bible or other suitable reference and who have not attempted to learn all they can about such things before making purchases. But I've seen this in all the hobbies I've ever been involved in. Shoot, I remember back in the day when I started out. I'd studied and read till my eyes bled... but that's still different from actually making purchases. I remember my first big show down in Fort Lauderdale. Granted I'd been to gun shows and such many times growing up but never to a "militaria show". I was like a kid in a candy store... plenty of money burning a hole in my pocket and nothing to hold me back. I've made my mistakes and am sure I'll make more before I go to meet my maker. But every new collector I run into I always try to tell them learn, learn, learn and then learn some more. Read, visit museums, look at other collections whenever possible, join forums like GMIC, use every resource they can get their hands on to learn all they can before spending a ton of money on something that may turn out to be fake or not what they thought they were getting. But when it comes right down to it the ultimate responsibility lies with each collector to know what they're getting into. If they just go out and buy left and right without ever cracking a book, joining a forum or seeing other collections, going to museums, etc., then they're getting exactly what they're asking for. The resources are definitely out there... they just need to put some effort into finding and using them. When I started into Soviet there were no refs in English... at least that I could find. But I still tried to find out all I could. I even remember being offered an Order of the Red Star shortly after the wall had fallen... I was thrilled. It was beautiful. Deep red enamel... just gorgeous. No idea what the serial number was or any other details as at that point in time I didn't know about such things... wouldn't for years to come. The price then was $350. Even though I loved it I passed. Something told me it was probably way too much. So unless it was some rare variation or a particularly low serial number I probably made the right decision. My first OPW were 2nd class 85 issues. And I know I paid too much. But again I was flying blind. But no refs so... I did get the color booklet put out by the Leningrad museum on Imperial and Soviet ODM and that helped a great deal. I began to learn. Got a few other basic guides over time. But until I joined GMIC and then managed to get a copy of the Red Bible I was still stumbling around in the dark. I got lucky and didn't make any huge mistakes. But needless to say I feel much better now... and I know I still have a ton to learn. All we can do is be there and offer our knowledge and expertise as we all do here and hope that those in need will find us, listen and learn. Well, I did it again didn't I? Another "Gone With The Wind" post. I can only hope I don't bore everyone to death. Kim and Nick always tell me I'm too long winded... but when I'm passionate about something I just can't help myself. And I do dearly love this hobby. Gotta run for now. Hope one and all had a fun and safe New Years Eve. Dan

Hi Jim, See what you're saying. I guess it struck me when I was re-re-re-re reading the red bible. It was talking about how these were created in order to put a stop to Orders being awarded simply for long service... such things as Red Stars, Red Banners and Lenins... which tended to devalue such awards. But it seems that there would have been many individuals with careers that went beyond 20 years of service. So either they would at that point have to fall back on higher Orders again for anything over 20 years or there had to be another solution. No idea why it didn't strike me before this... guess it just had to hit me at the right moment for the old light bulb to come on. Nothing earth shaking but seemed a good topic for discussion if nothing else. Thanks, Dna

Hi Coastie, I've got to say I really love those pins. The colors are great. They remind me of some of the older Japanese tin toys from back in the 50's and 60's. Hope you can find out more about them. Dan

I also have a pair of Luft collar tabs that I thought had basically bit the dust. Any chance they could be saved? One of them my mom attempted to repair but it came apart and one of the gulls unraveled. Anyhow hope you don't mind me asking although I'm still fairly sure that at least the one is still a hopeless case. Just couldn't resist when I saw the great restoration work you had done. Thanks, Dan

Geez! That's fabulous! Whoever did it is a real artist. I only wish I'd known about this years ago as I had a very nice Legion Condor cuff title that sadly had a mothed area at the end of the title around some of the letters. Ended up trading it off ages ago as I thought it was a fairly hopeless case.

Hi Gents, As one who collects Umalatova awards this is one I'd sure love to obtain one day. Beautiful! Seems the vast majority of what we see are medals and not the older enameled awards. And being partial to OOR's I really love this one. And to have it complete with it's document... well, here's hoping I can manage to find one as complete as this one some day. Dan

Hi Vic, Congratulations on a great piece with terrific research. And how I envy you in having his pic wearing the award (along with the rest he was awarded). This has been a long time dream for me which I hope comes true some day. So happy for you my friend. Hope all your research is a good or even better than this one! Dan

Hi Chris, Nice piece. Just out of curiosity... did they use any type of insignia on these or were they just plain as you've shown? I'm mostly familiar with those used by the Germans in WWII so there's alot of don't know about these. But I've always liked piths. Thanks for sharing this one. Hope perhaps you can find more on the original owner. Dan

Hi all, Had a thought... what was the plan in the case of the 10, 15 and 20 year Long Service medals... if one served for say 25, 30, 35 or 40 years? Didn't know if they had a plan for this or what. Don't know why it hit me but figured I'd ask in the hope that someone else knows. Thanks, Dan

Hi Rick, "Nice" piece! Can you show a shot of the back if there's anything of interest there? I'm beginning to not feel quote so alone as I've been with mine all these years. Now if only someone can find a pic or pics of these being worn during the period... that would be fantastic! Thanks for sharing! Happy New Year! Dan

Hi Doc, Beautiful pieces and they look great displayed that way. On the lack of wall space... that's why God allows us to build additions on our houses! Happy New Year! Dan

Hi RaZpuTiN, Welcome to the club! Shame about it being crushed like that. I wonder if it's possible to get it restored? It's a nice piece and the first I've ever seen. Dan

I agree with Doc... I've got one of the military versions but this one really is nice. I'll have to start keeping my eye out for one down the road. Dan