Hauptmann

Hi Hardy,

Many thanks on all this great info for this piece! It does have a bit of a sad story though. I'd originally gotten my Uncle Jack's German daggers and bayonet he'd brought back from WWII. He'd dug them out one day and thought I might like them. Included with them was a portepee. I still have it in the original Poloroids he'd sent along to see if I was intro'd in the daggers and such. So I got the whole bunch and kept everything of his in my collection.

Years later I got this one and one other which looked very similar to Jack's although the leather was in pieces. I'll have to go down and dig and see what I can come up with in a few minutes.

Then even further down the road I was making some deals with a Gent I dealt with up in Delaware... needed some cash to pay some bill or for Christmas for Nick and Kim or some such and was pairing down my extras and things of no interest. Well, I grabbed one of the portepees that I thought was the extra, having forgotten that the extra was the one with the damaged leather. Turns out, after the deal was made and I'd sent the stuff I had occassion to look at that original Poloroid and realized I'd done the deal for the wrong one... I'd sent him the one my Uncle had brought back!!!! So I rushed to the phone and called him, esplained the situation in the hope that he would be willing to exchange it for this one. Sadly, he'd gotten it for resale and it had already gone at a flea market or show or some such. So no way to trace the buyer. So off went another piece of family history to the four winds! And this time it was my own stupidity that did it! To this day I feel miserable about it.

But nice to know this one seems to be something good. Just out of curiosity, what is something like this worth nowadays? I generally keep it in a drawer with other odds and ends but wondering if it should take a more important place of display in the collection. Also what period would this be... WWI or pre WWI? And what type of bayo would it be best to display it on? I have a few German bayos but nothing fancy anymore And I think only one has it's frog. I'd definitely want to do right by it, especially if it's an important piece but I'm nearly in the dark about such things... knowing enough to be dangerous.

Anyhow I'll take a trudge down in the bunker and see if I can dig up pics. If so I'll pop them up on here in just a bit.

Thanks again,

Dan

Here you go, Dan: a comparison between your sword and a Prussian civil service sword from the W K & C catalogue. Of course there will be slight differences from maker to maker, but the two are very similar in design.

Hi John,

Wow... pretty darned near identical if you ask me! Any idea of the time frame for it? How about value? I'm always a bit curious about that as I always try to keep Kim and Nick abreast of such things "just in case". Although I'm hoping the collection will continue to be handed down but I do like them to know what potential treasures they're sitting on... as well as any duds.

Thanks so much for the help on this one. Didn't take you long to nail it down at all. But it's yet one more example of the miracles performed by our terrific membership at the GMIC.

Dan

Hi Gents,

Thanks to all of you for all the info and your great comments. I must admit that the young boy in me was hoping for a confirmation of this being something special from the days of Imperial China. As a boy I'd always thought it was a Chinese executioners sword. Boys will be boys eh? Has to be some adventure and can't just be something as bland as a tourist souvenir. But it is good the know the truth of the matter.

I will say, this thing has to be older than the hills. It was terribly old when I first saw it as a young boy as part of my dads collection. No idea when it was made but it's got to go back there a ways.

Again many thanks for all the help on this and at least it seems to have given a bit of entertainment which makes it all worthwhile.

Dan

Hi all,

Not sure if this goes here or especially if it's ID'd for a particular country/era if it would be better placed in another section. I'll leave it up to the powers that be.

Had this one forever and a day. No history on it. What you see is what I got.

Any ideas?

Dan

Dan

Hi all,

Here's a couple of eagles... one very small and the other a bit bigger, but not by much. Probably similar in size to the one AH used to wear on the upper part of his tie at times.

I hope someday to be able to acquire the Army and Air Force versions as well. I also have the brocade dress belts with hangars for these daggers.

Dan

And now a later one from 1977. It's in much better shape than the older example:

Hi all,

Here are my two examples of Soviet Naval Officers daggers. I got these in trade years ago. I'm a fan of the old Sci-Fi show Seaquest DSV and I have several original props and set pieces from the show. A gentleman I used to know had a daughter who also loved the show and especially the character of Lucas played by the late Jonathan Brandis. I managed to get him one of the jackets that had been worn by Jonathan on the series. In exchange he traded me these two daggers... the 1953 was actually a throw in.

The 1953 was as I say a throw in. The reason being he'd described it to me as having been damaged and that it looked like someone had used it to dig in a garden. When I got it I felt all it needed was some repair in that the crossguard had been bent on each end. That was easy enough. And then disassembly, a good polish and then reassembly. Needless to say it looks tons better now than it did when I got it. I'm not sure of the manufacturer as I have no guide on the makers marks used. Not even sure there is one floating around out there.

Hi all,

Here's my Bulgarian army officers dagger. It varies from the Soviet in a few ways. One is the insignias on the upper part of the scabbard. The second is the background on the cap star is pock marked. Third is the grips are a lighter almost ivory color. Fourth is that the blade is not marked. Not sure if that was a standard or not. Also, unlike the Soviet Navy daggers at least, there is no catch which keeps the blade from coming out unless you press a button. Also there is a brass strip running along each side of the grip. And there is no leather on the scabbard. Last but not least, the hanger is a chain with clip similar to the WWII 1st pattern Luftwaffe dagger. Also, on the cap piece just below the cap star, there is no state shield as on Soviet daggers.

Dan

Here's some shots of the other markings:

Both sides of the hilt:

And some final shots of the full sword out of the scabbard:

Would love to know more about it so keeping my fingers crossed that some of you might have run across one of these before.

Mucho thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

Dan

Hi all,

Okay, gotta try my hand at recreating this one. Seems there was a bit of a glitch in the system during a transfer here from another area and the post got lost in the translation. So we'll give it another shot.

Not sure which this is... or if there's another possibility. This one was a gift from an old friend many many many many moons ago! Seems like lifetimes actually. Supposedly it was found in a house after a fire. But there's not really any sign of any fire damage. The leather is showing it's age but nothing major... just what would be expected in some cases with it's age... which I'm assuming goes back to at least the WWI era if not earlier.

I'm not positive but now that I think about it I think there's a purple satin sword bag this came in. Not sure if it's original to the piece or not. I'll see if I can dig it up and do some pics but it may be packed away in storage. Haven't thought about it in a long time.

But for now... here's the sword:

Full view in scabbard:

I believe I'd done the flip side as well but when we downloaded the pic wasn't there. It's basically the same just without the clip(?)... but if needed I'll be happy to dig stuff out again and redo the pic. But as far as the brass parts of the scabbard you pretty much see everything in my other views so hoping that'll do the trick.

It's hard to get it all the way in the scabbard due to the next bit:

I'll show the other side of that in a sec but looks like RR door dings.

And then the other side of things:

And the other side with more dings:

Closeup of the maker:

Dan

Hi all,

Here's a piece my father had for a lifetime before he gave it to me. I have no other history on it but would love to know more if anyone out there knows anything else about it.

Dan

Hi all,

Here's a neat piece I picked up in Tampa Florida in another lifetime... it's been ages! Got it from a Vietnam Vet... one of the early advisors. He got it from one of the Vietnamese hill people. He said the wood stock was made from what the French police in Indochina used as a baton. All the rest was hand made by the hill people. He said the bands were made from silver and bronze French coins. On at least one of the silver ones you can still see a bit of design but not sure if it's something they inscribed on it or if it's from the original coin... very hard to tell.

The flintlock mechanism is an absolute bear to cock. Due to it's age I've only done it about three times to demonstrate it. I've had grown men nearly come to tears trying to do it.

Anyhow I hope no one minds me sharing it here... it's not truly militaria but as it was a bring back by a Vietnam Vet from a war zone I hope it counts.

Thanks for looking.

Dan

I'd also gotten an unnumbered Valor Medal and another numbered MMM:

And the MMM:

The Valor Medal:

And then from the other bar the Order of Glory 3rd: